James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 186: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number and percentage of serving consultants who have signed up to the new consultants' contract; the amount by which salaries will increase under the new contract; the additional cost of this to the Heath Service Executive; the amount made available for this by the HSE during 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40009/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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The Health Service Executive has advised that to date almost 90% of medical consultants have accepted Consultant Contract 2008, with 1,688 consultants out of 1,888 permanent consultants working in the public health service having opted for the new contract arrangements. The Executive has advised that approximately 200 consultants have remained on the 1997 consultants contract.

It had been agreed that consultants who signed the new contract would receive a 5% increase in salary with effect from 14 September 2007 and a further increase, the level of which would depend upon the individual's existing and new contract type: half of this remaining increase was to be paid from 1 June 2008 and the balance from 1 June 2009.

Although I sought and received Oireachtas approval for a Supplementary Estimate of €68m to cover the 2008 costs of the new contract, it was ultimately decided not to proceed with the new salary rates in the absence of sufficient demonstrable progress in relation to implementation on the ground and, as a result, no payments were made in 2008 in respect of the new contract. Accordingly the €68m provided in the Supplementary Estimate was subsequently surrendered to the Exchequer.

The HSE's 2009 Estimate provided for an additional €140m to cover the full year cost of implementing the Consultant Contract 2008. On 24 April 2009, following a verification exercise undertaken by the HSE, I sanctioned part payment of the new salary scales for consultants who signed up to the new contract. The previously agreed rates would apply from 1 January 2009. However, I was not in a position to sanction the final phase, the increase due from 1 June 2009 nor increased on-call and call-out payments. It is estimated that this will save approximately €75m in 2009 in addition to the €68m not paid in 2008.

Salary increases under the new contract, excluding the final phase payment that would have been due from 1 June 2009, range from €35,249 to €52,909 for a Type A contract, €24,743 to €42,402 for a Type B Contract and €18,737 to €26,643 for a Type B* Contract. A copy of the current payscales for consultants is available on my Department's website at www.dohc.ie.

It is my intention that the deferred increase would be reviewed in September 2010 on the same basis as the deferred increase awarded to Ministerial and Parliamentary office-holders and for other senior public servants under the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector (Report 42). However, this is without prejudice to any decisions that the Government might make in the interim in relation to the remuneration of senior public service grades generally arising from the review recently undertaken by the Review Body.