our local GP is on about €200k, it was in the newspaper a few months ago
Under what circumstances did the newspaper publish your GP's salary details? Or were you mistaken and it was actually some other figure (e.g. HSE payments or something like that)?
That figure would only account for monies received under the medical card scheme. Cash payments are not included in that figure, and I have been reliably informed that these may well equal the published amount. Obviously this is a GP with a well established and very successful practice.