The Minister for Health called on the Irish Medical Organisation to call off the strike by non-consultant hospital doctors and avail of independent third-party mediation.

Mr Martin said the Labour Relations Commission had agreed to examine the issues affecting them. "The Health Service Employers Agency, on behalf of health service employers, have agreed to participate in this process.

"I am calling on the Irish Medical Organisation to agree to mediation so that the difficulties can be resolved to the benefit of patients in our hospitals and for the well-being of junior doctors."

The Minister was speaking during a debate on a Fine Gael private member's motion deploring the Government's failure to make reasonable proposals to resolve the dispute.

The party spokesman on health, Mr Alan Shatter, accused the Minister and his predecessor of failing to realise that the health services had entered not only a new millennium but a new era.

"Rarely are the general public made aware of the effects of excessive working hours on the health of junior doctors. I believe that this evening, it is in the public interest to give two illustrations of what is happening behind the scenes within our hospitals. Just last Sunday, a 29-year-old junior doctor on a 36-hour roster in Beaumont Hospital had a heart attack and is now a patient in coronary care in the same hospital. Last week, in St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, a medical registrar collapsed while on duty.

"These examples starkly explain the pressures under which junior doctors work and clearly illustrate that our current hospital services are incapable of properly meeting patients' needs."

Supporting the motion, the Labour spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, said 98 per cent of those who had voted opted for industrial action, which was a landslide. "Yet again we are seeing health workers doing what goes against their professional commitment to patient care but who are being forced out of desperation to take industrial action in defence of basic improvements in their working lives."

Describing the issue as complex and difficult, Mr Martin said he acknowledged that non-consultant doctors played a vital role in the staffing of hospitals.

"There are problems with the hours worked by the some of our non-consultant hospital doctors and the issue of excessive working hours needs to be resolved for the improvement of patient care as well as the well-being of junior doctors."

Mr Martin said he had not been involved in a standoff. "I have met the junior doctors and contact has been maintained and the Government has been eager to resolve these problems, if necessary by third-party independent arbitration."

The debate on the motion will resume today.