Attempts by the Labour Relations Commission to broker talks on the hospital doctors' dispute have run into difficulties over payment for past overtime which the Irish Medical Organisation claims is due to its members.
The IMO wants guarantees that all verifiable overtime worked by non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) since 1997 will be paid as a precondition to talks.
Last night the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, appealed to the IMO to accept the mediation formula put forward by the LRC and call off its strike.
He said the gap between the two sides was "quite small" and did not justify the refusal to enter talks or justify industrial action. The Irish Patients' Association also called on the IMO to enter talks.
The LRC has secured a commitment from the Health Service Employers' Association (HSEA) that it "is prepared to honour in full its commitments" under the 1997 contract for NCHDs, including payment for verifiable overtime.
Cabinet approval is also understood to have been obtained for payment of any overtime due.
However, the LRC formula was not sufficient for the IMO because it believes the wording links payment to negotiations on a new contract.
The IMO's director on industrial relations, Mr Fintan Hourihan, said last night that no talks on a new agreement could begin until there was "a guarantee of full implementation of the 1997 agreement and a guarantee, where overtime monies are outstanding, and can be verified, that they will be paid". He added that, even if these guarantees were given and talks began on a new agreement, the threatened one-day strike for May 17th would not be called off.
He accepted that the difficulty in agreeing wording on guarantees over payments for past overtime and other issues was due to "a huge credibility problem".
Mr Hourihan said one NCHD had taken his claim for unpaid overtime to a Rights Commissioner and received £1,300 backmoney for a six-month period from University College Hospital, Galway.
Another NCHD at a major Dublin teaching hospital received £12,000 in backmoney to cover a 12-month period.
While no talks took place on the dispute yesterday, the IMO did meet the HSEA and three nursing unions - SIPTU, IMPACT and the Irish Nurses' Organisation - to discuss emergency cover.
The formula agreed with the HSEA was that weekend cover would be provided by NCHDs during the strike, plus one extra doctor per hospital.
Efforts by the LRC to get talks under way are expected to resume today.
The senior HSEA negotiator, Mr James Doran, said last night that his team had accepted the invitation to attend talks and was still available.
The HSEA had accepted all proposals put by the commission as a basis for talks.
Mr Martin urged the IMO to accept the LRC formula, which provides for discussions on implementation of the current contract, including overtime payments; negotiations on a new contract, including rostering and shift arrangements; future overtime arrangements and "any other issues which the parties deem appropriate".
Speaking in the Dail last night, Mr Martin said the HSEA had "indicated that it was prepared to honour in full its commitments" regarding the 1997 contract.