Over €100,000 paid to 24 bosses at funded bodies

A total of 24 senior managers in organisations which receive substantial grant funding from the HSE are being paid more than €100,000 per year, new official figures show.

The HSE told an Oireachtas committee last night that 34 senior managers in eight so-called section 39 organisations, which received more than €3 million in funding from the health service, also receive other benefits such as private health insurance or a company car.

The HSE said it would now engage with section 39 organisations regarding their obligations under their service agreements with it not to pay or subsidise salaries, expenses or other benefits which exceeded those normally paid in the public service.

Section 39 organisations receive grant funding from the HSE for providing services. Unlike voluntary hospitals and agencies which receive HSE money to deliver services on its behalf (section 38 bodies), staff working in section 39 organisations are not public servants, do not have public service pensions and are not directly bound by Government pay policy.

Top-up payments

However, last December in the wake of the controversy over top-up payments over and above official pay rates in the section 38 voluntary hospitals and agencies, the HSE wrote to section 39 organisations urging them to have due regard to Government pay policy in respect of their executive remuneration levels.

At the time the HSE began an examination of pay rates in section 39 organisations which were receiving more than €3 million from the HSE.

HSE briefing documents given last night to the Oireachtas Committee on Health in advance of a hearing today said there were 39 of these organisations which received more than €3 million annually in HSE grant funding.

The HSE said it had received information in relation to executive remuneration in 37 of these bodies. “Based on this information a total of 136 senior mangers (grade VIII and above) are employed by these organisations and of these 24 senior mangers are in receipt of an annual salary in excess of €100,000.

“In addition, 34 of these management positions across eight of the agencies receive additional benefits such as private health insurance, company car, etc.”

The HSE documents maintained there were four senior managers in section 39 bodies receiving between €125,000 and €150,000. There was no one earning more than €150,000.

The documentation said the HSE and the section 39 agencies in question would agree a transition plan, with defined timelines within which they would be expected to achieve full compliance in regard to remuneration arrangements for senior managers “with due regard to the terms of the section 39 service arrangement and other relevant contractual considerations”.

The documentation also revealed that the HSE had now received 67 business cases from section 38 voluntary hospitals and health agencies seeking to retain existing top-up payments for their senior managers on the basis that they had a contractual entitlements to this remuneration.