The first meeting of a new forum, which is being established in an attempt to address non-pay issues being raised by unions in the health sector, will take place this afternoon.
Today's meeting at Government buildings is due to be chaired by Dermot McCarthy, secretary general to the Government, and is expected to be an exploratory one.
The forum is being established at the behest of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) which met the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and Minister for Health Mary Harney several times to canvass the idea.
Ictu general secretary David Begg said last night the issues of health service reform and the need for this to go hand in hand with further investment in the health service would be teased out at the forum.
So too would the need for all healthcare staff to change their work practices so that hospital services, for example, could stay open for longer and that change in the sector could take place in an integrated way.
"We are also quite concerned about the move towards building private hospitals on the campuses of public hospitals. We don't think that is the right thing to do . . . we want to deal with that in the negotiations as well," he said.
The unions invited to today's meeting include those representing doctors, nurses, clerical and administrative grades, therapists and laboratory staff.
A Government spokeswoman said the Taoiseach would be very closely involved in the entire process and would keep in close contact with Ms Harney on all the issues raised.
"It is the first meeting to commence the process, it is an exploratory meeting and there will be further meetings in the coming weeks," she said.
Liam Doran, general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), last night welcomed the establishment of the forum. "We have always sought a quality assured, efficient and effective public health service that gives value for money to the tax-payer and we will be very active participants in this forum," he said.
Meanwhile, talks between nursing unions and health service management to discuss issues which brought the INO and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) to the brink of industrial action are to begin at Government buildings tomorrow.
The talks will take place over a three-week period and will be held under the aegis of the National Implementation Body (NIB), the main trouble-shooting mechanism of the social partnership process.
The INO and PNA, which represent around 40,000 nurses, are seeking a 10 per cent pay rise, a 35-hour week and a special allowance for those working in Dublin. Their members were due to begin a work to rule at hospitals across the State yesterday but the action was called off on Friday to allow the talks go ahead.
These new talks will involve all the nursing unions, including Siptu and Impact, which were not part of the dispute over pay.
The nursing unions met the NIB yesterday and afterwards described the meeting as constructive. The INO and PNA said later they were determined to utilise the three weeks of talks to make satisfactory progress on all of the priority issues affecting their members.
Siptu, which represents 8,000 nurses, said it had a very constructive meeting with the NIB regarding all the issues confronting the nursing profession.
Its vice-president, Brendan Hayes, said intensive talks would take place over the next three weeks and the union would play a constructive and active role in that process.