The health service is not delivering "customer satisfaction" despite large increases in pay and in the numbers working in the sector, according to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
He told the House public sector pay was expected to reach almost £8 billion this year, with health and education accounting for 67 per cent. The Minister was giving details of the increases in public sector pay since 1996. He said the education sector accounted for about 30 per cent and the security sector for about 14 per cent. The rest of the Civil Service accounted for about 15 per cent.
The health sector alone accounted for 37 per cent of the total pay bill and had shown the largest increases.
Mr McCreevy said the total public service pay bill had risen from £4.669 billion in 1996 to £6.798 billion last year. This year public sector pay is expected to rise by a further £1.166 billion to £7.964 billion, an increase of 17.2 per cent. The estimated rise in the consumer price index for 2001 is likely to be 4.5 per cent.
When Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Mr Jim Mitchell, said the health service had disimproved despite increases in pay and numbers, the Minister said he had got himself "into difficulty" in November 1999 when he said that for all the extra health spending he did not see a great improvement.