Sir, – I write to comment on Seán Flynn’s report on the front page of The Irish Times (April 5th).
Mr Flynn reports on the response to Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn’s request of eight higher-paid university academics, including four presidents, all paid over €200,000 per annum, to take a voluntary pay cut. The relevant university presidents have now complied with this request – fair enough.
However, I note that Mr Quinn’s request specifically excluded academic medical consultants working in the universities, all (or almost all) of whom are paid well in excess of €200,000 per annum. I assume that this exclusion is made because Minister for Health James Reilly is negotiating separately with the medical people. However, as I understand it, Mr Reilly’s negotiating position is to leave medical salaries alone in return for extra hours worked for public patients. Did Mr Quinn make any similar offer to the higher-paid academics, ie no salary reduction in return for working extra hours? And, if not, why not? Or, are medical salaries sacrosanct? – Yours, etc,
A chara, – So Ruairí Quinn is disappointed with the response of top academics to his pleas to take voluntary pay cuts. Should he not check with the Government’s own special advisers to see how they feel about this? Surely they hold the moral high ground on this one? – Yours, etc,