A retired consultant surgeon, who took a pension entitlements test case on behalf of himself and 103 colleagues, which could have cost the State £20 million, has lost his action in Dublin Circuit Civil Court.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne refused Mr Sean Baker a declaration that his pension should be 50 per cent of the salary of his successor in the post of consultant surgeon at Bantry General Hospital.
Mr Baker, of Carukeal, Bantry, Co Cork, had claimed the Southern Health Board and the Minister for Health had decided in 1991 to "fix" his pension at a sum less than the agreed 50 per cent, contrary to his contractual rights.
A decision in his favour could have cost the State up to £20 million in retrospective and future pension payments and legal costs. Judge Dunne said Mr Baker had been told in August 1988 that his pension would be half of £33,000, the net salary for a consultant surgeon at the time. He was succeeded at Bantry Hospital by Mr James Mulcahy, and while there was no practical difference in the work of both men, there was one significant difference between the nature of their contracts.
Mr Baker was contracted as a whole-time consultant and could conduct private practice elsewhere than at Bantry. Mr Mulcahy's contract restricted him to carrying on private practice only at Bantry Hospital.
Judge Dunne said a revised contract was introduced in June 1991. This included a significant variation in the terms of employment of consultant surgeons relating to lost fees from private patient payments taken over by the State.
The new contract had fundamentally changed the terms of Mr Mulcahy's contract, compared with what had been in place when Mr Baker had been serving in the same position.
Judge Dunne made no order as to costs. She said the test case had raised important issues in the difficult area of pensions. It had been a matter of importance for the two defendants to have the matter clarified.