Department to agree pay rise if psychiatrists back review bodies

The Government has offered to pay a 1.5 per cent increase it withheld earlier this month from consultant psychiatrists if medical organisations agree to co-operate with the establishment and operation of new mental health tribunals.

However, the proposals put forward by Minister for Health Mary Harney to resolve the row, which has delayed the establishment of the tribunals, were last night rejected by one of the medical organisations, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA).

Ms Harney said on Wednesday that it was her main Christmas wish to see the establishment of the tribunals, which will review the cases of up to 3,500 people detained involuntarily in psychiatric hospitals in Ireland each year.

Both the IHCA and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) have advised their members not to apply for posts on the new tribunals pending a resolution of the dispute, which centres on the level of back-up support to be provided.

Earlier this month the Department of Health withheld a 1.5 per cent pay increase due to serving and retired consultant psychiatrists under the Sustaining Progress agreement as a result of what it maintained was the failure of the medical organisations to co-operate with the establishment of the tribunals.

Talks on Wednesday ended inconclusively. While some progress was reported, the medical organisations maintained the main issue delaying a deal was the withholding of the pay increase.

However, in a statement yesterday, Ms Harney said that if the IHCA and the Irish Medical Organisation withdrew their advice to psychiatrists not to apply for positions on the tribunals and agreed to co-operate with their operation, it would "immediately clear the way for the payment of the 1.5 per cent salary increase".

"What is required is a clear and unequivocal commitment from both consultant bodies that their members will co-operate with the full implementation of the Mental Health Act 2001," she said.

Ms Harney said there was still time before Christmas for the IMO and IHCA to respond to her appeal to co-operate with the tribunals, "in the interest of one of the most vulnerable groups in society".

However, the secretary general of the IHCA, Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said last night that the Department of Health had acted outside the terms of Sustaining Progress by withholding the 1.5 per cent pay increase.