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THE TOP PAID individual in the Health Service Executive (HSE) last year received pay of almost €600,000.
According to the HSE’s just published annual report and accounts for 2016, they show that the individual received pay between €580,000 and €590,000 last year – more than three times the annual salary of €185,000 enjoyed by both Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the HSE’s Director General Tony O’Brien.
Only one other staff member received a salary in excess of €550,000 and that was an employee who received between €560,000 and €570,000 – no employee at the HSE received pay in excess of €550,000 in 2015.
Last year, a further nine staff members received pay between €300,000 and €370,000.
In total, 2,243 staff members at the HSE last year received pay over €100,000 last year compared to 2,124 in that earning bracket in 2015 – a rise of 119.
A HSE spokeswoman said that the remuneration “includes additional payments such as overtime, allowances, arrears, rest day payments, and records show that during 2016 there were a number of Labour Relations Commission rulings which resulted in once off payments being made to a small number of staff”.
She said: “Some of these additional payments relate to periods greater than one year and therefore significantly distort the actual basic salaries earned.”
A closer look at the figures
The majority of the high earners at the HSE would be medical consultants – though no breakdown is provided in the accounts between consultants and others.
The breakdown shows that 24 staff members received pay between €250,000 and €300,000; 207 in receipt of salaries between €200,000 and €250,000; 1,070 between €150,000 and €200,000 and 931 between €100,000 and €150,000.
The rise in stellar pay by the high-fliers at the health service comes against the background of the HSE’s total pay bill last year increasing by 4% from €4.9 billion to €5.1 billion.
During 2016, numbers employed by the HSE increased from 107,275 to 110,258.
Increased legal fees
Pay to key management personnel at the HSE – made up of the Directorate – last year totalled €1.23m – down from the €1.42m paid out in 2015.
The accounts also reveal that the spend on lump sum pension payments to those retiring last year totalled €108.3m – a 9% rise on the €99.58m paid out in 2015.
The spend on agency staff also increased by 7% going from €259.29m to €277.33m while the HSE’s overtime bill increased by 16.5% going from €127.74m to €148.9m.
Under ‘pay’, the HSE’s ‘night-time’ allowance bill increased by €10m to €73m while the spend on ‘weekend’ allowances declined from €164m to €160m.
Elsewhere, the accounts show that the HSE’s spend on legal and professional fees increased by 28.6% going from €47m to €60.5m.
The State Claims Agency (SCA) manages claims being made against the HSE for damages and the accounts show that the HSE’s estimated liability for active claims soared during the year by just under €400m to €1.92 billion.
Total spend
The accounts – signed off by the HSE Directorate on 16 May – reveal that €1.6 billion relate to active claims in respect of clinical care while €253m relates to active claims in the non-clinical care area.
The accounts also reveal that the HSE has recouped €34.05m in an insurance claim from the catastrophic damage to Letterkenny General Hospital as a result of flooding in July 2013.
A note attached to the accounts states that “these proceeds are to be allocated against expenditure in both revenue and capital to fund the rebuild programme”.
The total spend at the HSE last year amounted to €14.57 billion – a rise of 5% on the €13.89 billion and the accounts state an additional €500m from government last July represented “a significant commitment to ensuring that our health and social care services were placed on a more sustainable financial footing for 2016 and marked a move away from the practice of allocating supplementary funding at the year-end”.
In his report on the annual accounts, Comptroller and Auditor General, Seamus McCarthy states that his audit “identified a significant level of non-competitive procurement that is consistent with the findings in previous years”
McCarthy said: “There was a lack of evidence of competitive procurement in relation to 49% by value of the sample of payments examined at five locations in the HSE. The total value of the sample was €30.8m.”
In his comment in the report on the issue, CEO Tony O’Brien states: “The scale and complexity of the HSE’s overall procurement activity is such that it will take a sustained focus over a number of years in order to achieve high levels of adherence to procurement rules.
“This is an important objective for the HSE.”
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About time the amount of drivers who I see breaking red lights everyday is ridiculous,No enforcement=No fear of being caught.
this is not the first there used to be one at the lights on the N11 at rte heading into town
Hear hear. Only yesterday I came to an amber went across junction gut behind me breaks the red light. Never mind him breaking red light. I am thinking if I had of stopped would my car be sqaushed with me in it.
Stopped at the lights down by Hueston Station, lights go green for traffic to move and hey presto the bloody Luas Tram breaks the red light! This works both ways.
This exact system was in place in Los Angeles and was subsequently decommissioned a few years back because it was found to be ineffective as well as not being cost effective.
Will it catch cyclists .
Deco, only if the cyclists have number plates!!
They should have if they are road users.
a good clothesline will catch cyclists.
The gardai were there this morning stopping cyclists that broke the lights
Pedestrians also cross roads and break lights. We should make people wear number plates.
Well that didn’t take long.
Yeah, we’re all as bad as each other. Road planning is at fault, we’re years behind some countries. Bit of respect on all sides wouldn’t go astray too.
At last. They need them in Galway, where amber light means speed up and red means take a chance for a lot of idiot drivers. Give us more of these cameras. And shut up about it being a tax.. there is no tax for stupid.
Wow, at last traffic enforcement in Dublin meets the 20th century! So when will we see these at all Luas and large junctions in the city?
Hopefully this will stop all the taxi’s, trucks, vans and cars who think that saving themselves a couple of minutes is worth risking serious damage to people and property, as well as bringing transport to a halt for there own selfish gains…
21st century Integra-Ted!
Actually Gus:
1988: The first red light cameras were introduced in an initiative in the City of Nottingham following a triple fatal road traffic accident at a traffic light controlled road junction.
We need these cameras everywhere seeing as we have a reduced Gardai force ….. I’m sick of 2 cars deciding to go through the red light every morning – not at a particular juction but most junctions I stop at. Never a Garda around when one is needed!
Yes! About time expect lots more of these cameras folks!
Been in australia sense i landed here 10 years ago….. no talking your way out of a ticket from these machines……. if prefer a cop to catch me any day you would have some chance
So true jamie, can’t understand why you get the reds
Stop when the light is red and you won’t get a ticket.
Just need them for cyclists now…
What a Genius!
Let’s hope facial recognition technology is so cheap and advanced that it can identify a cyclist from there backside and issue imaginary penalty points to a non-existent Bicyclist licencing system!
I really can’t believe these are the first, welcome to the 20th century Ireland! ( i know its the 21st, it’s called irony)
see comments above. they’ve been in England since the 80′s
Has anyone even thought to ask? Why most of the accidents on the red line seem to happen at this junction with the luas. After all there are about 30ish cross luas/ traffic junctions on the red line. Compared to 4 on green line.
It has been suggested that there is a recurring ,self correcting ,cumulative error. With the timing at these lights.
It will be interesting to see what this camera shows.
*At this junction and the Queen Street junction*
A bit ironic that the first ” red light camera ” is being installed in a well-known red light area…….or so I’m told !!
Is there anyway we can apply this for Cyclists as well? It would make a bloody fortune.
That explains why there were two guards on both sides of the junction looking at the traffic
It always amazes me where they pull Gardai from in these cases, there was a Garda posted at the junction of Pearse St./ Westmoreland St. for months to enforce the bus gate, even though there are huge electronic signs. Why can’t the authorities cop on that systematic enforcement of the laws, rather than piecemeal reaction to given situations, leads to better observance.
There is a camera in place at island bridge for the last few years, inbound. I’m sure its still in use.
The Island Bridge one was part of this trial. There used to be an older one there before (apparently at an older academic trial) and it was replaced around the time the Blackhall Place camera was put in.
Isn’t there one at the big roundabout heading into Heuston Station on the Con Colbert Road?
Also one at Talbot St – Gardener St junction
Didn’t they run that one as a trial a few years back and then turn it off?
Cyclists??
cyclist – noun: a person who rides a bicycle. hope that helps
Can’t believe this is only being installed in 2015. I got caught in england on one of these in 2000
have your say