Written answers

Tuesday, 25 September 2018

Department of Health

Hospital Consultant Contracts

Photo of Tony McLoughlinTony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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269. To ask the Minister for Health if an issue (details supplied) will be investigated at Sligo University Hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38337/18]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Report of the Public Sector Pay Commission published on 4 September recognised that the implementation of the settlement of the 2008 Consultant Contract claim, while necessary of itself, would serve to highlight the differential in pay between the pre-existing cadre of consultants and new entrants. It stated that the aggregate level of vacancies for consultant posts at the end of 2017 and evidence of recruitment campaigns with very low levels of applications, suggest a general difficulty recruiting consultants and that the two-tier pay system was among a number of factors raised with it as affecting recruitment. It also stated that the policy responses it expected for new entrants across the public services generally would be unlikely to address the degree of pay differential which applied to new entrant consultants. The Commission proposed that the Parties to the Public Service Stability Agreement jointly consider what further measures could be taken, over time, to address this difficulty.

New entrant consultants’ are encompassed by the process announced yesterday for new entrants across the public service under Section 4 of the Public Service Stability Agreement and will benefit accordingly. However there will continue to be a pay differential between pre-existing and new entrant consultants. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has noted the Commission's views that the Parties to the Public Service Stability Agreement jointly consider what further measures could be taken, over time, to address the pay differential between pre-existing consultants and new entrant consultants. The challenge will be doing so in a manner that respects pay policy and our budgetary constraints.

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