Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Okay. Why make that agreement? Why would one decide to treat the allowances differently? We all accept that the payment of such allowances would for the most part be considered core pay and would be treated differently anyway at the outcome of the review of allowances. According to the statement, the Department of Health consolidated pay scales classify sessional payments and on-call payments as allowances. Therefore, why make the decision with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform?