Fianna Fáil backbenchers appeared to be in revolt last night against Minister for Health Mary Harney's tough line on nurses' pay, as they warned against opening a war on three fronts in the health service on the eve of the election.
A meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party passed a motion calling on the Government to ensure that talks take place between the nursing unions and the HSE Employers' Agency to avert a strike over nurses' pay.
While there was no direct mention of the Minister for Health at the meeting, backbenchers said afterwards that there was a clear message to Mary Harney to adopt a more conciliatory approach to the nurses' pay issue.
The Taoiseach's own more conciliatory approach was cited by TDs as an example of what was required.
Deputies told the meeting, attended by Bertie Ahern, that the Government must soften its line on health and passed two motions on the issue. One asked the Government to ensure that talks between the two sides take place.
The second motion called on the parliamentary party to "consider the terms of the Irish Nurses Organisation/Psychiatric Nurses Association documents pertaining to issues regarding pay and condition of employment".
TDs spoke at the meeting of the danger of the Government being "at war" on three major issues in the health service at present - nurses' pay, the consultants' contract and the health insurance issue.
"We can't afford this leading up to an election. Something must give or we will suffer in June," one backbencher said.
Minister of State for Children Brian Lenihan, who is attached to the Department of Health, spoke for the motion and said that while it was a complex issue there should be negotiations and the issue sorted out.
Other prominent backbenchers also spoke for the motion, including chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Health John Moloney and chairman of the All-Party Committee on the Constitution Denis O'Donovan.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the Government set a seven-week deadline for the agreement of a new contract with hospital consultants and backed Ms Harney's strategy of going ahead with the hiring of new consultants if the talks do not conclude by March 27th.
Ms Harney said that the independent chairman of the negotiations, senior counsel Mark Connaughton, would be asked to provided an interim report to the Government on February 27th.
If the talks are not successful the Government will unilaterally advertise the first of 1,500 additional consultant posts on revised terms and conditions.
Ms Harney said that the new contract would have to be priced by the O'Brien review group - the body that examines top level pay in the public service - rather than in face-to-face negotiations in the talks process.
However, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said last night that the Minister appeared to be introducing a pre-condition into what were supposed to be unconditional talks on a new contract.
IHCA secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick said that the Minister seemed to be over-ruling the talks chairman, who indicated last October that the pricing issue could be dealt with between the parties.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said that it would be bound by the timetable determined by the independent chairman and not one set by anybody else.
Ms Harney said the March 27th deadline was reasonable. She also said that she was not envisaging that the talks would fail.
However, she said Government policy to recruit an additional 1,500 consultants on a very different contract of employment had to be implemented.
Ms Harney said the management side would put proposals for a new contract on the table next week but she declined to spell these out.