There was increasing confidence that a deal on new consultants'contracts would be reached as talks resumed in Dublin this afternoon.
The talks are taking place against the background of a marathon 16-hour session which ended without agreement in the early hours of this morning and which saw the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) delegation walk out claiming that "little progress" had been made.
However, Finbar Fitzpatrick of the larger Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), told ireland.com at lunchtime that there was "increasing confidence" that a deal would be reached.
He said progress had in fact been made in the talks and that it was hoped that agreement would be reached by this evening.
"At one stage, between 1am and 2am, we thought the talks were going to break down but we stuck with it.
"While today's session will be long, it will not be the same marathon as we had last night," he said. Mr Fitzpatrick said the issue of pay was not raised but it would be high on the agenda for this afternoon.
"No matter what happens today, we won't absolutely finalise the document but the intention of the session last night and today would be to agree the terms of an agreement."
Under current proposals doctors opting for a contract which would see them work exclusively in public hospitals would receive a salary of up to €235,000.
The IMO delegation is not participating in today's session after walking out of last night's talks.
Shortly before 2am the IMO delegation left the talks which have been billed by the Government and the Health Service Executive as the final opportunity to reach a deal on a new contract for hospital consultants.
Dr Sean Tierney, IMO consultant committee
IMO delegates expressed their "disappointment" at what was on offer saying that "little progress" had been made.
Fintan Hourihan, director of industrial relations of the IMO said agreement had not been reached and added that it was "highly unlikely" that a deal might be done.
In a statement released at 3.30am, the IMO confirmed that it would ballot its members on the final proposals received from the health service employers in relation to the consultant contract.
"We received clarification on the final position of the employers on a number of outstanding issues following which we now believe the process has reached its conclusion", said Dr Sean Tierney, chairman of the IMO consultant committee.
The IMO said it had made considerable concessions, including introducing a new public-only salaried contract, increasing the basic working hours from 33 to 37 hours per week, and extending the working day to between 8am and 8pm from Monday to Friday.
"We have also committed to exploring further changes in working hours arrangements on the basis of patient need and the availability of sufficient staffing and resources," Dr Tierney said.
"We have sought to ensure that patients can be confident that clinical decisions are independent of management pressures.
"Crucially, we believe that internationally recognised quality standards must govern the appointment of consultants in future, which we believe would be paramount to patient care and safety. However, the employers have refused to sign up to such standards."
Medical organisations have argued that for many doctors the new pay offer represents little or no increase in the hourly rate for the job, given that they will be expected to work a longer week.
Following this morning's adjournment, chief executive of the HSE Prof Brendan Drumm said "significant progress" had been made and that he remained "optimistic" that agreement could be reached.
Prior to yesterday's meeting, Prof Drumm said a hugely generous offer had already been made to consultants and that value had to be provided for the taxpayer.