The IHCA was due to meet with Minister for Health Mary Harney on Tuesday (December 15) to ensure that proposed pay cuts to consultants’ salaries were applied ‘on the same basis’ as they will apply to all other comparable public servants.
The Budget proposals announced by the Minister for Finance was the main topic discussed at a meeting of the IHCA’s National Council in Dundrum last weekend.
Speaking to Irish Medical Times after the talks, IHCA Assistant Secretary General Donal Duffy explained: “There are specific terms in the consultant contract that the HSE is not complying with.”
While the non-compliance was to be directly raised with Minister Harney at Tuesday’s meeting, the Association said it could not countenance the consultants’ contract being broken, at the same time as a 15 per cent cut in pay was being sought.
A 15 per cent pay rise from June 1 this year, which has not been sanctioned, is provided for in the consultants’ contract and ‘non-payment is a breach of contract’, in the IHCA’s view.
The Association informed the Minister three weeks ago that it would accept a pay cut, provided it is applied ‘equitably’ across the public sector, stated Duffy.
“We pointed out that we had already accepted a cut and we weren’t going to accept a second one,” he added.
The Finance Bill is still not law and the question of further action will not arise until the consultants are presented with a ‘double hit’, added Duffy.
A decision on possible further action may be considered at the IHCA’s next National Council meeting in January.
The IHCA highlighted in its pre-Budget Submission that the cost of providing healthcare had been underestimated in recent years. “We estimated that this year’s budget would require an additional E1 billion to adequately provide for the expected service demand,” it stated after the release of the Health Estimates.
“The announcement of a reduction of E400 million in next year’s funding, coupled with increased charges for public patients using the service will serve only to repeat the mistakes of the 1980s, from which the health service never fully recovered.
“The net result of this Budget is that public patients are paying more for a reduced service,” it added.
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