Consultants are expected to vent their anger when the Minister for Health, Ms Harney, attends the annual meeting of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) in Kilkenny this weekend.
The Tánaiste yesterday confirmed she would personally address the conference at lunchtime today.
This follows the consultants' rejection of Ms Harney's appeal to enter talks on a new contract before a row over their insurance cover has been resolved.
In Galway yesterday, however, Ms Harney said she did not believe the organisation had closed the door on discussions on health-sector reform.
The session this afternoon is scheduled to deal with the issue of malpractice insurance, which has been the subject of a stand-off between consultants and the Department of Health since earlier this year.
In February the Department unilaterally introduced a State indemnity scheme run by the State Claims Agency, a move the IHCA regards as a breach of the consultants' common contract.
Sources close to the IHCA said yesterday that Ms Harney's failure to follow through on a commitment by her predecessor, Mr Martin, to deal with the issue of who will be responsible for the liabilities of consultants before today's meeting would lead to "considerable anger" and "a stern stance" this weekend.
Significantly, the organisation will also vote for the first time on rule changes governing procedures to be followed in the event of industrial action.
IHCA members are also angry at the Government's decision to defer the Buckley review on pay awards, which includes hospital consultants. There is also concern at the plight of eight obstetricians and three other consultants who have been refused indemnity by the British-based Medical Defence Union (MDU), despite having paid regular subscriptions to it.
The MDU action is an indirect result of a failure to resolve the wider issue of who is responsible for past liabilities of consultants in certain specialities.
Mr Kevin Kelly, chairperson of the Interim Health Service Executive, will address the conference this morning as will Dr Ailis Quinlan, chief executive of the State Claims Agency.
After she delivered a keynote address at an engineers' conference in Galway yesterday, Ms Harney said: "Clearly there are lots of issues of concern to the consultants. There are lots of issues of concern to the Government as well."
Saying there "must be a timeframe" for discussions, Ms Harney continued: "We would like early discussions. We have to have a timeframe for discussing all the matters of concern both to the consultants and the Government. The reforms are urgent. The consultants are crucial to the final solution to the problems that bedevil the health sector."