A target date of mid-October was set yesterday for the conclusion of negotiations on a new contract for hospital consultants.
The negotiations, which have been stalled since April, are likely to resume shortly, first with side meetings and then with face-to-face talks in July.
Representatives of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) met Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday to discuss getting the talks restarted. The meeting was described as "positive and constructive".
It follows a meeting earlier in the week between the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which also represents consultants, and Ms Harney.
Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary-general of the IHCA, said that the talks could reconvene if the Health Service Executive (HSE) agreed not to begin interviewing applicants for 68 new consultant posts which had been advertised on a new contract which had not been agreed.
He said that he was given the impression at his meeting with Ms Harney that she did not have a difficulty with this.
"She pointed out on a number of occasions that a closing date has not been set for the 68 posts, and interviews would have to go ahead immediately following the conclusion of negotiations," he said.
"We set mid-October as a target to conclude the negotiations," he added.
A spokesman for Ms Harney said that the meeting with the IHCA was a positive one. "It was agreed by both sides that we should try and progress talks over the summer with a view towards working to an agreement in the early autumn," he said.
However, he claimed that the issue of whether or not interviews would take place for the 68 new consultant posts had not been "addressed or raised", although it was pointed out that the jobs were still open to applicants.
Ms Harney is now due to meet the independent chairman of the consultants' contract talks, Mark Connaughton SC, in coming days to discuss restarting the negotiations.
Mr Fitzpatrick said that a number of outstanding issues between the sides still had to be negotiated. These included issues around private practice and pay, but he did not believe that the issues were insurmountable.
Under a new contract, consultants would be expected to work in teams around the clock, reducing current reliance on junior doctors. The basic salaries which would be offered to consultants who signed up to new public-only contracts would be about €205,000.