A resolution of the long-running negotiations on a new contract for hospital consultants is finally in sight with the Cabinet committee on health due to discuss an improved salary offer – thought to be about €275,000 a year – when it meets on Monday.
If an improved offer is agreed by the Government and accepted by the doctors, it should clear the way for a wave of recruitment of new consultants, easing pressures in the health service and eventually reducing waiting lists.
The existing offer of a €250,000 salary has not persuaded the doctors to sign up but sources with knowledge of the talks say they believe a significantly improved offer could break the deadlock.
The new contract would be for “public-only” work, meaning that consultants would be contracted to work for 37 hours a week in the public health system only and would be prohibited from doing any private work in public hospitals. Any private work undertaken would have to be on their own time and in private hospitals, it is understood. The contract would also be available to all consultants currently working in the public system.
The State will also pay for ongoing training for the consultants, as well as their professional indemnity insurance. The roles will also include generous public sector pension terms.
Optimism around deal
In an interview in the Business Post on Sunday, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly suggested that a new consultants’ contract was imminent and Government sources were optimistic that a deal could be agreed by Christmas if an improved offer was approved at the Cabinet committee on Monday.
Mr Donnelly also told the Business Post he would like to see regional health chiefs – due to be appointed under a forthcoming reform of the system that will see it reorganised along regional lines – paid up to €250,000 in order to attract “really good people”.
In the same interview, Mr Donnelly made a bid to be reappointed to his role after the December reshuffle, telling the interviewer he wants to “finish the job” in the remaining two years of the Government.
Mr Donnelly, whose future in the role is the subject of much speculation around Government, defended the progress he said had been made during his time in the Department of Health.
“Yes, would I like the opportunity to finish the job? Yes, I would. Some people would think I’m mad, obviously, but I would love the opportunity to finish that job,” he said.
Ministerial reshuffle
With the changeover in the Taoiseach’s office just over a month away, speculation about the accompanying reshuffle is likely to intensify over the coming weeks.
But Taoiseach Micheál Martin refused to be drawn on on topic at the weekend, insisting that no decisions would be taken until he sat down with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan at the end of November to discuss possible ministerial changes.
“The Tánaiste and I, at the end of this month, will meet with [Green Party leader] Eamon Ryan. We will work through with our advisers the various issues surrounding portfolios and all the other issues pertaining to the next phase of the Government,” he told reporters in Cork.
Asked if there was any substance to – or if he had any comment to make on – media reports that Fine Gael was anxious to take over the agriculture portfolio with Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney being mentioned as a possible candidate, Mr Martin was again reluctant to be drawn.
“As I said earlier, Leo and Eamon and myself have agreed that we will talk about this, at the end of the month. We don’t want to fuel unnecessary speculation – there is a lot of speculation, and I am not going to add to it,” he said before declining to comment further.
