IHCA President calls on Minister Varadkar to fully reverse the unilateral 30% new entrant consultant salary cut.

IHCA President calls on Minister Varadkar to fully reverse the unilateral 30% new entrant consultant salary cut.

Monday 3rd November 2014: The President of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), Dr Gerard Crotty, said that the Government needs to urgently reverse in its entirety the unilateral 30% additional cut in new entrant consultant salaries which was introduced in October 2012. He said that the IHCA has consistently sought the full reversal of the 30% cut and not the partial reversal included in the LRC proposals, which was overwhelmingly rejected by NCHDs in the past week.

Dr Crotty said there is no other sector of the economy where the State has so blatantly breached its contractual commitments and imposed an additional 30% salary cut on top of substantial cuts arising from FEMPI legislation and the pension levy in recent years. Until the cut is reversed in full the health service will continue to fail to fill vacant consultant posts to the detriment of patient care. He said, in this context, it is no surprise that our highly trained consultants and doctors are emigrating in increasing numbers to other countries where they are highly sought after and are being offered more competitive terms and conditions and where contracts are honoured unlike in our health service.

ENDS

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James Dunny, FleishmanHillard 086 388 3903