Fresh efforts will be made later this week to find a basis to restart talks on a new contract for hospital consultants.
The attempt will be made by the independent chairman of the talks, Mark Connaughton SC, when he holds separate meetings with health service employers and the two unions representing consultants.
He will meet representatives of the Health Service Executive Employers Agency (HSEEA) possibly as early as today and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) tomorrow. A time has yet to be fixed for Mr Connaughton's meeting with the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) later in the week.
Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary general of the IHCA, said the chairman wanted to be absolutely sure he understood each party's position and he would then draw up a document which he hoped would be acceptable to all sides and "thereby facilitate a return to negotiations".
The negotiations have been stalled since last February.
"I have been endeavouring over the summer to impress on both the HSE and the Department of Health that we are anxious for a return to negotiations and that it would be appropriate to have a set of proposals with regard to a return to negotiations to be placed before our annual conference on October 7th.
"It would greatly improve the atmosphere at the banquet that evening, which will be attended by the Minister for Health, if a decision to return to negotiations had been taken," he said.
He said that the talks were essentially stalled as a result of the HSE's decision last January not to appoint any more category II consultants. These are defined as consultants who work in public hospitals but are also allowed to have an off-site private practice.
Mr Fitzpatrick said that while the HSE had in June offered to reappoint category II consultants for the duration of any talks, this was not acceptable to the unions because it did not lift the restriction on the filling of 24 category II posts which were about to be cleared when the HSE made its "vile" decision in January.
Gerard Barry, chief executive of the HSEEA, said he believed employers had met the unions "more than half way" when it made "its goodwill gesture" and offered to lift the ban on the appointment of category II consultants for the duration of the talks process.
He added that agreement also had yet to be reached on how any new contract would be priced, but Mr Fitzpatrick said the pricing issue was not as intractable as the category II issue.
Despite the obvious differences which still exist between the sides, Mr Barry did say yesterday that he welcomed the fact that the chairman of the talks was renewing contact with the parties.
"The chairman is going to meet all of us separately over the next few days to ascertain if any basis exists for him to reconvene the talks," he said.
Meanwhile, Fintan Hourihan, director of industrial relations with the IMO, said he believed it ought to be possible to solve the impasse between the sides at this stage.
"There are options and processes available," he said.
"We are very clear though that negotiations have to take place on the basis that existing arrangements are honoured."