Minister for Health Mary Harney has said talks on the consultants' new hospital contracts are in the final two weeks as far as she and the Government are concerned.
Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Ms Harney said if there was no agreement, the Government would have to proceed with the process of recruiting the new consultants.
Earlier, President of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association David O'Keeffe said he is fairly confident agreement can be reached on new hospital consultant contracts by next year.
On RTÉ's This Week, Mr O'Keeffe said agreement had been reached on some issues but that the Health Service Executive has continued to insist on full consultant cover in selected specialties.
He said it would be difficult to have a firm contract agreed by Christmas but he said agreement has been reached to allow advertisements for the recruitment of new consultants to be published in the coming weeks.
