Dr. Donal de Buitléir:

-----as to whether we will be able to attract people to work in the public sector for the kinds of realistic public service salaries we are recommending. According at the Revenue income distribution tables, the recommended salaries that would be paid to consultants would put them in the top 0.7% of income earners in Ireland. I think that was the figure when I worked it out. Adding to that the public service pension, these are attractive posts, so it should be possible to recruit people of the requisite standard to do the work in public hospitals. If that turns out not to be the case, we may have to consider adjusting the salary in future to ensure that people can be attracted.