"I really get tired of listening to these people who can earn up to 500,000 a year, or twice as much as I get, constantly giving out about their place of work. It's a pity they don't try working [in it], " Ahern told a gathering of senior HR managers and union leaders in Dublin last Thursday.

The Taoiseach had departed from the text of his address after accepting the Charles E Jacob medal for his contribution to social partnership. He said that it wouldn't be accepted in any other workplace that the highest-paid staff should be constantly criticising work practices and lowering the morale of their colleagues.

"If they were footballers they would get a straight red card, " said Ahern.

"People get sick 24 hours a day, seven days a week, " Ahern said, referring to the fact that hospital consultants work a Monday to Friday, 33-hour working week.

The Taoiseach's outburst comes as the long-drawn pay talks between the hospital consultants and the HSE remain on a knife-edge this weekend.

Last Friday, health minister Mary Harney and HSE chief Brendan Drumm accepted the final report of mediator Mark Connaughton, SC, on consultants' pay and conditions. Connaughton recommended that consultants increase their working week to 37 hours, though the HSE wanted a 39-hour week, and that consultants extend their working week from the traditional 9 to 5, Monday to Friday working week to an 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, plus a commitment to work five hours on Saturday and Sunday.

He also recommended that a consultant's private practice should be limited to 20% of their overall workload. Currently, the majority of consultants can effectively double income from private practice.

But pay remains a major stumbling block to agreement.

The HSE has offered a top salary of 216,000 a year plus allowances for public serviceonly consultants and 190,000 plus allowances for a consultant with the right to conduct private practice in a public hospital or co-located private hospital.

The consultants' unions, the IMO and the IHCA, have already indicated that the salary levels are unacceptable.

The IHCA is meeting this weekend and the IMO will gather tomorrow to consider the recommendations.