Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am talking that through because I think a number of consultants in that case will be coming onto the new pay rates under the 2008 contracts. Given that they are pre-2008 consultants, they are some of the most experienced consultants in some of the hospitals. They took the view that the 2008 agreement was not being honoured and so they did not sign up to it. Now that it is being honoured, at what point do they come in? We might have to get more detailed information from the witnesses.

I have seen charts and schedules, and I see about 95 types of pay rate, depending on the three contract types and where someone is in their progression. It is highly confusing. Some consultants have made the case that older, more experienced people, who had not previously signed up to the 2008 agreement, who effectively interviewed and hired some of the newer ones, and are more senior in the hospital, are going to end up on a lower pay rate because they are only signing up to the 2008 agreement now.