There have been more than 100 applications for new hospital consultant posts which were advertised on terms not agreed with the consultant representative bodies, Minister for Health Mary Harney said yesterday.
The 68 posts were advertised in April and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) had advised junior doctors not to apply for them.
Ms Harney denied on RTÉ's News at One that the number of applications could be described as paltry. She said there were usually only three or four applicants for each consultant post.
The IHCA pulled out of talks with the Health Service Executive on a new consultant's contract after the jobs were advertised and began a limited form of industrial action. However, that action was called off last Saturday pending a meeting with Ms Harney tomorrow.
The IMO met Ms Harney last evening for about an hour to discuss ways of getting the contract talks restarted. The meeting was described as constructive.
Ms Harney said she wanted to "start working with people to find solutions" and she was hopeful agreement could ultimately be reached with the unions on a new contract. She said the status quo was not an option.
Under a new contract consultants would be expected to work in teams around the clock, reducing current reliance on junior doctors.
Ms Harney said many new consultants had to be recruited and new ways had to be found of recruiting them. In some countries they were headhunted, she pointed out.
In a separate development the HSE said yesterday that about €71 million of the approximately €100 million it failed to spend on capital projects last year had been used to offset its day-to-day spending requirements.
Furthermore it claimed that the remainder of the surplus could, with Department of Finance approval, be carried over to this year to be spent on capital developments in 2007.
However, a spokesman for the Department of Finance said this was not the case. "They can't carry over any of their capital budget to this year because carryover can only be dealt with in the context of the Appropriation Act each year. The Appropriation Act 2006 enacted last December dealt with capital carryover for 2006 to 2007 for various departments and offices. There was no capital carryover provision for the HSE," he said.
A HSE spokesman last night disputed this.
The Irish Times revealed yesterday that the HSE had failed to spend €97.7 million it was allocated by the Government last year for new developments and facilities. It was stated most of the money had to be given back to the exchequer and the chairman of the board of the HSE Liam Downey said he did not believe the money could be got back without special approval.
But a HSE spokesman said last evening that most of the money did not have to go back to the exchequer.
"The Department of Finance sanctioned approval for the HSE to move €71 million from its capital surplus to revenue (day-to-day spending) in 2006 in order to address core service delivery issues such as the cost of additional beds in the community to support hospital services," he said.