The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said it hopes to be able to reach agreement with employers on a new contract for hospital consultants in the next few days.
Agreement was reached last Thursday with the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA).
The IMO had been hoping for a deal which would pay consultants higher salaries than those accepted by the IHCA but Minister for Health Mary Harney said yesterday there was no more money on the table.
The salaries negotiated with the IHCA ranged from €175,000 to €240,000 and on top of these consultants will be entitled to a range of allowances for weekend work, on call, and extra responsibilities.
Fintan Hourihan, director of industrial relations with the IMO, said last evening he wasn't surprised by the Minister's statement in relation to pay. "We are not under any illusions about the position in regard to pay," he said. There were other issues which now had to be ironed out to the satisfaction of the IMO, he said. The IMO wants to see a requirement for doctors to be on the specialist register before they can be appointed as consultants and it also has concerns about pension provisions.
The IMO walked out of talks on a new contract the day before a deal was struck with the IHCA. Mr Hourihan said his union did not regret this. "We feel our decision was justified and there are important issues that have still not been resolved to our satisfaction," he said.
But he added: "It would be our wish to reach agreement in the next couple of days if possible."
The union will meet the independent chairman of the talks, Mark Connaughton SC, later today or tomorrow.
Mr Connaughton is putting in writing the various elements of the agreement reached with the IHCA, which represents about 1,800 consultants.
Ms Harney said she hoped the IMO, which represents about 800 consultants, would sign up to the agreement.
The new contracts will apply to all newly recruited consultants and Ms Harney said she hoped consultants already in the system would also change over to them.
"It's my view from soundings I've taken from many doctors I've spoken to that the vast majority of the 2,000 doctors we have at the moment will opt to go into one of these new contracts," she told RTÉ's This Week programme.
She didn't accept it would take a decade for the terms of the new contracts to become fully operational. She also said she didn't believe the deal would become unstuck.
Meanwhile, at a meeting in Dublin on Saturday organised by the Labour Party, economist and author Maev-Ann Wren said two waiting lists would remain under the new contracts, not access according to medical need.