Talks between health service management and medical organisations on a new contract for hospital consultants have adjourned for the evening.
The talks are taking place over three days this week in Co Kildare, but it is expected that the negotiations could go into next week.
Pay, private practice rights and hours of work are on the agenda in the talks which the Health Service Executive Employers Agency has warned represent the last chance for agreement.
The independent chairman of the talks, Mark Connaughton SC, has held meetings with the HSE-Employers Agency and with the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association over recent weeks before the new session of talks.
A new contract for hospital consultants is one of the key elements of the Government's overall healthcare reforms, but the talks have been hit by rows, delays and walk-outs for more than three years.
The Government is seeking to employ about 1,600 additional hospital consultants on revised terms and conditions.
If no agreement is reached at the talks, it is believed the Government will press ahead with its plans to appoint, unilaterally, new consultants on revised terms and conditions.
Any such move could lead to industrial action by senior doctors in hospitals.