The Cabinet will today be asked to endorse a stricter implementation of rules on the amount of private practice which may be carried out in public hospitals.
At present, the level of private practice in public hospitals is capped at 20 per cent but in reality this is ignored in many hospitals.
Minister for Health Mary Harney has expressed concern several times that the number of private patients admitted for elective or non-urgent procedures at Tallaght Hospital, for example, reached more than 40 per cent in one year.
She will seek her Government colleagues' backing today for a tightening up of the current system which allows such practices to continue, at the expense of public patients.
She is also due to bring proposals to Cabinet today on a timescale for the implementation of Government policy on the introduction of new contracts for hospital consultants, as well as on the nature of these contracts.
Ms Harney said last week that she would be bringing to Cabinet "an outline timetable and timeframe for the introduction of a new contract for new consultants coming into the Irish healthcare system".
It is understood she will tell the Cabinet she wants the consultant contract negotiations, which have been taking place on a stop start basis for at least two years, and which are currently stalled, reconvened and successfully concluded within weeks rather than months.
Informed sources said she also wants the manner in which consultants are currently recruited, which can take a year or more in some cases, speeded up.
Meanwhile, a fresh round of meetings are due to take place this week in an attempt to draw up an agreed agenda to restart the stalled hospital consultant contract negotiations.
The independent chairman of the talks, barrister Mark Connaughton, is to hold separate meetings with each of the parties involved.
This includes the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Sources said last night that it would probably be late next week at the earliest before the talks resume.
All sides have now agreed to resume talks unconditionally and for a defined period, but the defined period has not yet been quantified.
However, it may be quantified after today's Cabinet meeting when Ms Harney briefs her Government colleagues on the timescale she wants adhered to for the talks' successful conclusion and the implementation of a new contract.
If she wants the talks concluded within weeks rather than months, as suggested, this would mean they would have to finish in less than two months.
At that stage, all going well, Ms Harney would be able to begin recruiting some of the 1,500 new consultants, which she says are needed in the Irish health service, before the general election.
The new consultants would be rostered around the clock, which would give the public access to a consultant-provided rather than a consultant-led service 24 hours a day.
At present, many patients have to be treated at night time and at weekends by junior doctors and the idea is that the new consultants would reduce dependence upon them.
Last night the IHCA's general secretary, Finbarr Fitzpatrick,said: "We are going into the negotiations with a positive attitude and with the intention of making them a success."
He added that he would like to see a new contract negotiated as soon as possible but cautioned that "people must remember that the devil is always in the detail in contract negotiations".