THE BOARD of the Health Service Executive (HSE) has approved a bonus of more than €70,000 for its chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm.
The approval, understood to have been given recently, comes when the HSE is in the middle of a major cost-cutting programme and is making plans to reduce spending by up to €1.2 billion next year.
The bonus payment for Prof Drumm is for 2007. While it would normally have been paid in 2008, a decision on whether to pay it was postponed consistently and only taken over the summer.
The Irish Times has learned that the bonus payment amounts to just over €70,000. However, it is understood that the money has not yet been drawn down.
It emerged last year that €1.4 million had been paid in performance bonuses to other senior HSE staff in respect of 2007. The HSE board has suspended consideration of performance-related awards in respect of 2008, which would normally be paid this year, following a request from the Department of Health.
In a statement last night the HSE said: “The board of the HSE has approved payment of a performance award to Prof Drumm based on his performance in 2007. During 2007 activity in many community and hospitals services increased from the previous year and the HSE met its accountability requirements by delivering a balanced vote.”
In 2007 Prof Drumm received a bonus of about €80,000.
A spokesman for the Minister for Health Mary Harney said that while she would be routinely made aware of issues brought before the board, she had no role in the assessment of performance-related payments for individual members of HSE staff.
Provision for a bonus payment is contained in the terms of Prof Drumm’s contract. However, confirmation of the approval of the bonus for 2007 is expected to generate controversy at a time when the HSE has closed hundreds of beds, laid off temporary staff and is considering cuts in allowances and variable pay for staff.
The HSE will meet trade unions today to discuss its reform plans.
The year 2007 was a highly controversial one for the HSE, including the misdiagnosis of cancer among women in Portlaoise. There was also strong Government concern over spending controls in the HSE.
In December 2007 Ms Harney wrote to the HSE chairman expressing deep concern that the HSE had to seek a supplementary estimate of €244 million “particularly in circumstances where it still has not delivered on many of the approved service developments for which it was funded in last year’s estimates and budget. This cannot be allowed to recur.”
In a separate letter to Ms Harney in December 2007, the then minister for finance Brian Cowen said that he was not satisfied the HSE was giving sufficient priority to tackling the causes of its budgetary problems.