A BODY representing hospital consultants has criticised comments made by a consultant physician on pay.
In a letter to the The Irish Times, published on Wednesday, Dr John Barton, a consultant physician in Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, said the pay increases sanctioned for consultants were "absurd" in the context of the current economic crisis.
Dr Barton questioned the morality of a €25,000 increase in his salary.
The assistant secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), Donal Duffy, said: “What Dr Barton hasn’t mentioned in his letter is the fact that, in return for the consultants’ pay increase, consultants have agreed to significant changes in work practices.”
Dr Barton had failed to mention that the second part of the agreed pay increase, due to come online in June, had been postponed due to the economic crisis, he added.
“Consultants have given a 100 per cent increase in terms and conditions for 50 per cent of the salary increase,” Mr Duffy said, adding that consultants had also been affected by the pension levy and other income levies.
Under the new contract, consultants have agreed to increased working hours and weekend attendance among other changes to work practices.
However, Dr Barton, who ran for Fine Gael in the 2007 general election, said he was criticising the Government and Opposition, and not the IHCA.
“I am expressing a sense of what I believe is poor governance and poor leadership,” he said.
Dr Barton said he was reluctant to give the money back to the Minister for Health or the HSE “because I’m not sure I trust them with spending it”.
He suggested that the Irish Medical Organisation or the IHCA consider setting up a donation fund whereby consultants who choose to give back the pay rise could put the money towards the protection of patient services.
“This might be an opportunity for leadership amongst a group of people who are highly paid individuals to say that we recognise that the country’s in a mess and we’re willing to do our little bit,” Dr Barton said.