Ms Louise McGirr:

In the new contract, there are new limits, as there are in most contracts, in respect of on-call duties. A consultant can have up to €40,000 in total for the year in the context of being on call. Issues around compensatory rest are involved in this particular case. Where consultants are working on a very challenging rota of 1:1 or 1:2, they will get compensatory rest for time off, and there are issues with how that is being applied.

The overall solution is the significant increase in the number of consultants. This really reduces the amount of intensive rostering that allows for additional payments for compensatory rest. On call is limited. On-call duties should be reduced through the new contract because the core hours of the contract are from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. and over weekends. We now have well over 4,500 consultants in the system, and with that growth they should be rostered around times that mean the need to be on call as a reliance for the provision of service is really reduced. I know the HSE has done a great deal of work on looking at that reduction of those 1:1 rosters. They should not be in place anywhere. That is the solution.