Leo Varadkar defends spying on consultants in pay row

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has defended the use of private investigators to “spy” on consultants as part of a legal strategy against them.

Consultants claim they are owned up to €700m from the State over a pausing of promised pay increases which they claim is a breach of their contracts.

Mr Varadkar told the Dáil that the State is right to use private investigators to monitor individual doctors’ hours to build up a case against these consultants.