A new system of medical malpractice insurance for hospital consultants due to be introduced today has been postponed for three months.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, had told hospital consultants that he wanted to introduce the new scheme today.
However, representations from the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association and the Irish Medical Organisation resulted in a last-minute postponement of the scheme.
Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, general secretary of the IHCA, said the Minister now wanted the date to be October 1st, but their a.g.m. was on October 4th.
The matter would be debated by the IHCA then.
"Suddenly we were told it was going to be introduced on July 1st and we had been negotiating for a while.
"We would prefer it to be brought in on November 1st or at least late October," he said.
IHCA and IMO representatives had been meeting the Minister over the past week to try to solve the situation as there were outstanding issues, Mr Fitzpatrick said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said consultants wanted to discuss a number of issues in relation to the scheme so it was decided to defer it until October 1st.
"The scheme is still Government policy, and there is no question of it not going ahead. Discussions will continue with the IHCA and IMO," she said.
The change, from a system of individual insurance for consultants to one in which the State insures hospitals and doctors as a single entity, will not directly affect patient care.
At present, hospital consultants are insured against claims by patients by British insurance bodies.