Reports that the Irish Government might delay plans to restore Public Service pay scales to pre-2013 levels have met with an angry response from the Irish Medical Association (IMO).
The IMO, whose members include hospital consultants, have told the Government that it must honour plans to restore the pay of senior public sector workers.
This comes after it emerged that pay rises for senior Public Servants, due to take place in July, were in doubt.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath is to review top-level pay in the Public Service, establishing an independent review group to examine the process for appointing top Public Servants and fixing their salaries.
As well as looking at how posts are filled, the new group is to examine how more private sector applicants could be attracted to senior roles in the bureaucracy.
Sources said the process was likely to have implications for the final reversal of the austerity-era pay cuts for top earners.
Under the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017, those earning more than €150,000 ($A239,300) are due the final phase of pay restoration on 1 July with increases of between 10 and 15 per cent.
Public Servants lower down the pay scale have already seen their salaries restored to pre-austerity levels.
The IMO said it was dismayed at reports the Government was considering changing the pay schedule as part of a broader review and sought an urgent meeting with Mr McGrath and Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly to discuss the issue.
Chair of the Consultant Committee of the IMO, Clive Kilgallen said a failure to honour agreements would “confirm the views of many consultants that Ireland is simply not interested in their skills and expertise, that healthcare management cannot be trusted, and that any agreement is simply not worth the paper on which it is printed”.
“We are in the middle of the worst consultant workforce crisis in the history of the State with dangerous numbers of patients waiting for treatment and over 700 vacant consultant posts, yet the Government continues to target the very people we need to deliver expert care to patients,” Dr Kilgallen (pictured) said.
Dublin, 6 February, 2022
