Hospital consultants are to sue the Government over its failure to pay increases of up to €40,000 per year under the terms of a contract agreed in 2008.
If the case is successful and back-money has to be paid to all the doctors affected, it is estimated the bill for the Government could be in the region of €100 million.
The secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, Martin Varley, said a number of doctors had initiated proceedings regarding the payments.
He said the amounts involved varied enormously, depending on the type of consultant contract involved.
However, internal Department of Health briefing material provided to then minister for health James Reilly in 2011 suggested that for consultants working exclusively in the public services – those with a type A contract – the disputed amount could be up to €40,000 per year, backdated to June 2009.
Under the terms of the 2008 contract, consultants agreed to new work practices, restrictions on private practice and to be rostered over an expanded working day. In return, they were to receive salaries of between €170,000 and €240,000, with increases to bring the rate up to these levels to be paid on a phased basis.
The Government paid the first phase of the increase but withheld the second. Subsequently it also introduced a 15 per cent pay cut for consultants as part of wide-ranging salary reductions in the public service.
Salaries were cut again under financial emergency legislation following the introduction of the Haddington Road agreement in July 2013.
About 2,000 hospital consultants were covered by the new contract introduced in 2008.
In late 2011, the Government won a test case brought by a consultant under grievance and dispute procedures over an alleged breach of contract over the failure of the Government to pay the increases due.
