The Minister for Health and Children has said he is willing to talk to doctors about making medical cards more widely available.
However, in an address to the Irish Medical Organisation conference in Killarney, he gave no clue as to what form wider eligibility might take.
Earlier, a national meeting of general practitioners called on the IMO to resist, by all lawful means, any un-negotiated extension of the medical card scheme to people over 70.
In an attempt to defuse threatened industrial action by hospital doctors, the Minister also offered to meet the IMO for talks on overtime. Non-consultant hospital doctors say employers are rostering them to work unsocial hours as part of their normal week so as to avoid having to pay overtime.
Mr Martin argued that extending the medical card to all over-70s - due to start on July 1st - was similar to benefits like free electricity and TV licences to the same group. He said 1.1 million people had medical cards and the proposals would add only 33,000 to that.
He invited the IMO to make submissions to him on wider eligibility for medical cards. He was confident the extension of the medical card to all over-70s would go ahead.
The disagreement over overtime payments for hospital doctors will be discussed at talks between the IMO and the Minister, the IMO's Mr Fintan Hourihan said after the Minister's speech.
But he made it clear that any work outside 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Thursday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.on Friday should be paid for as overtime. The Health Service Employers' Agency takes the view that doctors must work 39 hours before they are paid overtime, regardless of when those 39 hours are worked.
The IMO president, Dr Mick Molloy, later complained in an address that doctors from outside the EU were not getting training to enable them to progress to consultant level. "Many of these professionals find themselves working in smaller hospitals with limited training facilities," he said.
A Dublin GP, Dr Cyril Daly, said extending free medical services to the over-70s "had nothing to do with social compassion and equity". "We are being asked to provide free drugs and free nursing to retired judges, barristers, doctors and stockbrokers, while at the same time a young married couple with children and a high mortgage cannot access basic healthcare," he said.
Dr Cormac Macnamara, a former IMO president, said the Government was chasing the "silver-haired vote" among the elderly, a group which has a traditionally high turnout at election time. "We are opposing the plan, not because of a vested interest but because it is a perversion of social inclusion."
He pointed out that general practitioners already provided free healthcare to 250,000 people over 70.
A Meath GP, Dr Martin White, said: "We are not refusing to treat the over 70s, but free GP care must be for people who are in real need."
The conference was told 100,000 people earning less than the minimum wage could be given free medical care for the cost of medical cards for all over-70s regardless of income.
Proposing a motion that the General Medical Services contract be renegotiated so health boards took responsibility for "out of hours" cover, a Laois GP, Dr Larry Fullam, said the Government would have to face the reality that older doctors were not able to cope with an out of hours commitment.
Dr Martin White said the demands of the day job had changed so much that doctors could not be available at night also.
The motion was unanimously adopted, along with one calling on the IMO to negotiate early retirement for all GPs.
The IMO chief executive, Mr George McNiece, announced that in response to an agreement reached with the Department of Health on a range of outstanding GMS issues at a meeting on the April 4th, "it has agreed to participate in discussions on automatic medical card eligibility for those aged 70 and over".
Earlier, the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament rejected the IMO position on the over-70s; older people should not be used as a pawn in negotiating the terms and conditions of the medical card scheme, it said in a statement.