The threatened strike by junior doctors , which had been postponed to allow for settlement talks, is on again, with a one-day action now scheduled for Tuesday October 8.

The IMO says it has resumed plans for a 'Day of Action' over doctors' long working hours . The action is now scheduled to take place on October 8 and will affect all public hospitals in the country.

The doctors' union said the decision to resume plans for industrial action follows the failure of the HSE to offer satisfactory clarification on a number of issues on which the the IMO had expressed concern last week.

Eric Young, Assistant Director Industrial Relations at the IMO said that the HSE had failed to demonstrate to the NCHDs that it was committed to addressing the excessive working hours issue in a real and meaningful way.

"Ultimately the HSE wants us to trust them to resolve this issue but they have repeatedly failed to honour commitments on this issue going back a decade so its just not realistic to expect us to take them on trust on this occasion."

Mr Young was critical of a claim by the HSE in a letter received today that it (the HSE) had engaged in 'nearly a month of engagement between health service management...and the IMO'.

Describing this claim as the claim as 'an abuse of language', he said: "Attending meetings with no preparation to show and no ideas to offer to a decade-old dispute does not count as engagement. The HSE has wasted a decade on this issue and lost the trust of a generation of NCHDs (junior doctors), and they have now wasted another month with the same indifferent approach."

Mr Young said that a 'key issue' was the refusal of the HSE to accept realistic sanctions for failing to comply with the European Working Time Directive (EWTD).

The IMO wants an end to continuous shifts in excess of 24 hours for junior doctors and a commitment to reduce the working week to 48 hours by the end of next year, in line with EU law.

The HSE for its part, says it is making progress in reducing shift lengths and the working week for junior doctors. Proposals were emerging with a view to reducing shift lengths and the average working week.

The HSE has admitted that cutting junior doctor hours in smaller hospitals remains a challenge.

The IMO is reported to have sought the granting of extra paid leave to junior doctors as a sanction if hospitals failed to reduce long shifts.