DONOHOE: TAX RATE CUT WILL GO AHEAD
‘Will not impact October’s Budget’
A MONSTER settlement agreed with hospital consultants won’t affect plans for personal tax reductions in the October Budget, the Minister for Finance said yesterday.
Paschal Donohoe answered firmly ‘No,’ when asked if his cherished intention of further trimming of income tax would be affected by the deal, which involves payment of €182million in arrears in stages.
He also denied it would impact the HSE service delivery plan next year, saying this would be protected – but failed to specify under repeated questioning where the money would be found.
It is believed, however, that capital and investment plans could be staggered or postponed to meet the new requisition, which will be just under €60million in 2019.
He said the deal reflected the Government’s commitment to a vigorous defence of the consultants’ claim, which could have cost the Exchequer over €700million in total.
‘It represents, on balance, a cost-effective and least-worst outcome, the Minister declared, describing it as a ‘legacy issue’ relating to contracts signed from July 2008 to September 2012.
But he said the sum involved was undoubtedly very large, and would be paid over through to the end of 2021. Some 2,700 consultants are to receive arrears.
Mr Donohoe said: ‘It had been decided, based on the legal advice of the Attorney General’s Office, to settle the cases and to address a liability that could only increase.’
Health Minister Simon Harris said it finally put an end to a ten-year saga, and would also involve the consultants cooperating on new ways of verifying that their members are delivering on their pledged hours under their public treatment contracts.
A recent Primetime Investigates programme found that some consultants were spending nearly all their time on their private patients while availing of taxpayer-funded facilities.
Asked by the Irish Daily Mail how this would be done, Mr Harris said there would be very clear rules and the consultants’ body would agree monitoring with the HSE.
Asked if he believed hospital consultants were overpaid, Mr Harris replied: ‘No.’
He said he believed that the ‘overwhelming majority’ of consultants were working well beyond their publicly contracted hours.