Talks aimed at resolving the nurses' dispute, which enters its fifth week today, were continuing late last night.
The talks at Government Buildings in Dublin, which resumed at 4pm yesterday having adjourned late Saturday night, were said to be deadlocked over two key demands of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) for their members.
The unions are seeking a 10.6 per cent pay rise and a 35-hour working week. At present nurses work 39 hours a week.
While the Health Service Executive Employers Agency (HSEEA) tabled proposals on Saturday to reduce the nurses' working week in two phases, it is understood the unions were still unhappy that no firm date was on the table for the introduction of a 35-hour working week.
On the pay issue, it is understood the unions presented five examples of how pay issues in the public sector had been dealt with previously without breaching public pay policy.
However, the HSEEA again said it would only be prepared to address an anomaly which sees 50 staff nurses on a lower salary than social care workers reporting to them.
But the unions want all nurses to benefit from any pay increase.
Sources said the talks, which are being held under the aegis of the National Implementation Body (NIB) - the main troubleshooting mechanism under the social partnership process - were on the verge of collapse on Saturday night.
And a union source, going into yesterday's negotiations, said the sides were still "so far apart" that the talks were effectively at an impasse.
No face-to-face talks had taken place between the sides yesterday - as of late last night.
Instead the NIB, the unions and the HSEEA were in separate rooms at Government Buildings and the NIB was said to be remaining in close contact with both sides.
The NIB, it is understood, was trying to see if it could come up with a formula for the resolution of the dispute.
The reduction in hours was reported to be the main stumbling block to any such resolution.
Meanwhile, industrial action by INO and PNA nurses is continuing at hospitals and mental health facilities across the State.
Their action is taking the form of a work-to-rule during which they are refusing to deal with non-essential phone calls or carry out clerical or IT duties.
The HSE has said the action is putting patients at risk and it has instructed hospitals across the State to begin postponing appointments for out-patient clinics and elective procedures in the coming days, as a result of what it says are the risks posed by the work-to-rule.
It has also said the industrial action is costing up to €2 million a week.