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People would be surprised at the number of people involved in policy making who don’t understand things like percentages, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
He said that while some such as Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers – the Ministers for Public Expenditure and the Chancellor of the Exchequer – understand the figures, “a lot of people don’t”.
He said those who did well in professions such as politics and journalism generally did so because they were good at language and English, not numbers and maths.
Delivering the Irish Medical Organization‘s (IMO) annual Doolin memorial lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland on Saturday, Mr Varadkar said: “I remember having a conversation with a former Cabinet member, who shall remain unnamed, and trying to explain house prices and the fact that if house prices fell by 50 percent and then recovered by 100 percent, they were essentially back where they were at the beginning.
“And a blank face and a blank look – I couldn’t understand this for a second. And then, of course, percentages, medians and averages are not well understood by many people in the media system and the political system, which is, frankly, a major concern.”
Mr Varadkar urged doctors not to “sell themselves short” in pay negotiations with the government. “Doctors in Ireland are well paid, but everyone in Ireland is actually well paid compared to other countries. Doctors in Ireland earn roughly three times the average income and that is no different from the rest of the developed world.”
Mr Varadkar told members of the IMO: “If you go into wage negotiations in the future and people from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform say that doctors in Ireland are among the best paid in the world, you can tell them that civil servants are among the best paid belong in the world. the highest paid in the world. It is a hallmark of Ireland that we are well paid and have a high cost of living.
“There’s no reason why you can’t defend your income in the coming years and look for more, especially in line with private sector wage growth, which is 4 to 7 percent per year. Don’t sell yourself short, would be my advice.”
Mr Varadkar said nurse pay does not rank well internationally. He said nurses’ wages, around €45,000 to €50,000, were not particularly high considering they had four-year science degrees and many had additional qualifications on top of that.
He proposed the controversial new €2 billion national children’s hospital can be seen as a ten-year development project – running from 2016, when it was granted planning permission, until its planned entry into service in 2026. He indicated that expenditure of an average of €220 million per year would represent approximately 20 percent of the healthcare capital budget .
The former prime minister said he was concerned that the pipeline of new hospital development projects planned was not strong enough. He suggested a new €1 billion hospital was needed in Galway, while significant investment was also needed in Limerick and elsewhere.
He said the planned new National Maternity Hospital project – to replace the existing facility in Holles Street – was “crawling along” and had not yet been tendered for construction.
Mr Varadkar said he hoped the new government program would include a commitment to open around 5,000 additional hospital beds, which was the level of investment he said was needed. He predicted that the population in Ireland would reach around six million by 2040.
He said the root of many of the problems in Ireland’s healthcare system was that there were too few hospital beds.
“We have done a terrible thing policy-wise – much of it with advice from doctors and specialists – by reducing hospital beds far too much and making the emergency department the only way most patients can get to the hospital. That is a fundamental problem that has not yet been solved.”
Mr Varadkar, in his defense as a former health secretary, said he halted the closure of hospital beds. He said governments have increased bed supplies in recent years “but nowhere near what is needed”.
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