Following eight months of negotiations, agreement has finally been reached on a contract for hospital consultants, giving some doctors pay rises of up to £13,000 a year.
The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) said last night it was recommending acceptance to members even though the package on offer was not ideal but was "the best attainable at present". In a statement, the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, welcomed the agreement for the 1,200 hospital consultants who work in the public service. He said the new contract was based on the recommendations of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector.
Under the terms of the contract, consultants' salaries will range from £61,876 to £76,756. The IHCA had been protesting over a corresponding curtailment, or in some cases abolition, of allowances for being on call and called out after hours.
Particularly contentious had been an attempt to make the first 30 call-outs free. These will now be paid for and rates of payment have been altered.
The entitlement of consultants to rest days after a weekend on call has also been copper-fastened.
All IHCA members will now be circulated with the document and must vote by November 28th.
The negotiations had been stuck on disagreement over pensions. This was finally resolved last Tuesday night.
According to Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary-general of the IHCA, it had been been a "major problem" relating to consultants who were retired or were due to retire shortly.
Consultants also agreed to a new disciplinary review procedure. Where there is a "serious risk to safety, health or welfare of patients or staff", the consultant may apply for, or be required to take, administrative leave with pay while an investigation is taking place.
Mr Fitzpatrick also said the IHCA was "determined that the neglect of the 1980s in the matter of reviewing consultants' salaries and contractual conditions should not be repeated".
"It is also our view that the contractual conditions, having been reviewed on two occasions during this decade, need not be the subject of a further review for a significant number of years," he said.
The IHCA believes the Review Body process is the best way of ensuring reviews take place at regular intervals.
Consultants will be paid back money and the amounts will vary from £10,000 to £12,000.
Mr Conal Devine, Industrial Relations Director with the Irish Medical Organisation, said last night that it was particularly pleased that pension parity had been re-established. "However, there are some outstanding concerns with the offer, which will be put to members at meetings around the country over the next few weeks," he said.
In his statement, Mr Cowen said the Review Body report recommended changes in the way hospitals were managed and made a number of specific recommendations concerning the employment conditions of consult-ants. It also recommended increases in consultants' pay in return for accepting the new conditions. Mr Cowen said the cost had been estimated at £13 million a year.