Irish hospital consultants may have salaries cut, earning twice as much as in other countries

The European Commission has warned that Irish hospital consultants must have their salaries cut as they are earning twice as much as their counterparts in Britain and Germany.

The Irish Sunday Times reports that the European Commission discovered while reviewing Ireland’s bailout program that medical specialists in Ireland are earning €181,000 a year, far more than €91,000 in Britain and €100,000 in Germany.

Further, the Commission’s review found that Irish hospital consultants are getting paid an approximate staggering 12 times more than those in Hungary, and four times more than those in Portugal.

While the Commission acknowledged that the Irish government recently implemented a 30 percent pay cut for newly appointed consultants, they recommended further measures to address the “high level of remuneration.”

The report included other ‘hard-hitting comments.’ The Commission’s report revised its growth forecasts for Ireland down by 0.3 percent for both 2013 and 2014.

The Commission’s report noted that Ireland’s Department of Finance has been more “optimistic” about Irish projected economic growth, but warned that this optimism could lead to a massive €1.5bn gap in revenue by 2015 if the growth did not materialize. Thus, additional budget cutbacks may be needed.

The report also warned of a “real risk” that the government’s redundancy scheme in the public sector will fail to achieve its target of reducing the workforce by a further 10,000 by 2015.

The report explained that high unemployment will discourage public servants from leaving their current employment. However, if the required numbers do leave they are likely to place additional cost pressures on the social welfare budget.

Says the report, “On the basis of the commission’s lower macroeconomic projections, the planned adjustment effort over the forecast period may not be sufficient to reach the deficit targets.”

“A new Comprehensive Expenditure Review will start in 2013 providing options for further fiscal adjustment in 2014-15 and reassessing government spending priorities.”