Public health doctors who are central to the battle against Covid-19 have deferred strike action planned for later this month because of the "rapid and escalating" incidence of the virus.
The 60 doctors belonging to the Irish Medical Organisation had planned to strike on 14, 20 and 21 January in a dispute over pay and re-grading.
However, the union said the deferral had been approved on ethical grounds at a time of grave crisis – although the situation will be reviewed at the end of the month.
As they are not ranked at consultant grade, public health doctors earn up to 48% less than their hospital consultant colleagues. They have been campaigning to close that gap for around 20 years.
The 60 public health specialists can currently earn up to €111,822, but their hospital consultant colleagues with a 'Type-A' public-only contract can take home between €141,026 and €195,653.
Consultants with other contracts permitting an element of private practice could take home significantly more.
Dr Ina Kelly, who chairs the IMO Public Health Committee, said: "Our decision to defer action is based purely on ethical considerations and our commitment to do the right thing at a time of grave crisis."
She said that despite Government talk of the importance of supporting public health, public health departments remained "wholly under-resourced", adding that the Government had not even come to the doctors with proposals to reform the system to introduce a consultant-led public health service.
She described the mood of public health doctors as "more than disappointed, frustrated and angry."
Dr Kelly accused the Government of failing to respect or value the work of public health doctors, adding: "It strengthens our resolve to win this battle in the coming months in order to protect the future of public health in Ireland.
"We went into this pandemic understaffed, under-resourced and under-valued and nothing has changed. We still have no consultant led public health teams and inadequate staffing and we are still overwhelmed on a daily basis.
"We can only hope that the Government will take this time to finally recognise the importance of a consultant led service, the need to immediately upgrade current specialists and to recruit additional consultants into the service and to ensure our Departments have permanent support staff.
"We are doing our best, but with the inaction of Government we are fighting this pandemic with too few people who are being asked to do too much."
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Philip Boucher-Hayes programme, Dr Kelly said the risks of not fixing outstanding issues are huge, and under-investment in the area was visible throughout 2020.
These issues should have been resolved by last July, she said, adding that it is impossible to recruit public health doctors if they are not treated equally.
The IMO notes that other countries grade public health doctors as consultants, and such a move has been recommended in previous reviews of services here.
The union also argues that the pay disparity makes it extremely difficult to recruit staff to the area.
Last November, the public health doctors backed strike action by a margin of 94%.
The Department of Health has previously acknowledged that consultant status was recommended for the public health specialty under a new public health framework in the Crowe Horwath Report published in 2018.
The Department has also stated it was consistent with the role envisaged for the public health specialists in Sláintecare and the Scally Report on the National Cervical Check Screening Service.
It said late last year that the Minister for Health, the Department and the HSE were committed to the early introduction of a new framework for public health care, as provided for in the Programme for Government, and that this would involve the establishment of a consultant-led public health model in line with the Crowe Horwath Report.
