Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 24 October 2024

Public Accounts Committee

Financial Statements 2023: Health Service Executive

9:30 am

Mr. Bernard Gloster:

I will let the officials from Department talk about that in the context of the new contract. Ms McGirr was part of the team that negotiated it. Before I do so, I want to be unequivocally clear about what I was pointing to in my opening statement. I do not think it was even extraordinary. It was abhorrent that somebody's contractual provision, which might be legally, technically correct, is interpreted to that level of application where four patients would be seen in less than 60 minutes and each would attract the six-hour payment the contract allows for when someone comes in, off their rest day, on call. In terms of the new contract, which is fundamentally the way of dealing with those issues, Ms McGirr may want to comment.