Dr. Mick Molloy:

We have called for a full discussion on that recruitment and retention crisis in our consultant workflows, including the terms of any new contract. Talks were under way under an independent chair. That chair was appointed to the High Court and we have been calling for a new chair to be appointed so talks can recommence to deal with these matters. It is difficult to understand, when we are waiting for talks to start again, why the Government is already reneging on previous agreements such as the restoration of cuts from before. If the Government is refusing to honour current contracts, it does not breed much trust for people to enter into a new contractual arrangement.

The Deputy noted I was shaking my head. Moving forward to Sláintecare does not solve the problem for the people who had their salaries cut in 2012. They will now have had ten years of a reduced salary and pension benefits and they will not be replaced by a sudden uplift in the salary when they sign a new contract. It has nothing to do with private practice. It means that group of people have been penalised through no fault of their own and just by the nature of the date they were appointed. I am one of them. By the nature of the date of my appointment, I should have left the country and stayed abroad because I would have been more valued in the system. I stayed in Ireland and worked on a temporary contract arrangement of six months here, four months there and two months over there. I was working around the system, which meant I had no permanent contract. By the time I got a permanent contract, I was subject to this 30% cut in salary. There is no plan to have that deficit addressed in my pension fund or agreement with what is on the table now. It has not even been discussed with the Minister at this point.