The Irish Medical Organisation has called on the Government to clarify its position regarding the European Working Time Directive, and whether it will attempt to renegotiate it during the Irish presidency of the EU.
The IMO said the Government should publish a paper it produced for an informal meeting of the Council of Employment Ministers in Brussels last week, at which the directive was discussed.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has said it is 'next to impossible' to implement the directive to reduce the working hours of junior doctors to 58 by next August.
Negotiations on new rosters for junior doctors are deadlocked, with little sign of a breakthrough. There are also no plans for extra consultants to replace the extra hours worked by many of the country's 4,000 junior doctors.
At present, many junior doctors in surgical and emergency departments work over 100 hours a week.
The agenda for last week's meeting in Brussels stated that the Irish presidency tabled a paper summarising the issues around the directive, and invited reactions on a number of specific points.
Fintan Hourihan of the IMO said the Government should publish that paper, and clarify its stance on the directive.
He said the comments from the Taoiseach that the directive was next to impossible to implement by the August seemed to indicate that the Government does not intend to meet the requirements of the directive.
