The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland has said that the European Working Time Directive should be phased in over several years.
The directive is to be implemented for non-consultant hospital doctors on 1 August.
In a statement, the RCPI said that junior doctors should urgently be freed from inappropriate tasks if more consultants and secretarial staff were employed and if the role of nurses were expanded.
Talks on the directive between the employers and the doctors' representative, the Irish Medical Council, are deadlocked.
