Dublin hospital group lost €10.86m

Two car parks at St Vincent’s hospital complex in Ballsbridge, south Dublin, lost €750,000 in 2012, according to the latest accounts for the company set up to service their development.

Overall, the hospital group, which comprises two publicly- funded hospitals and a private hospital, lost €10.86 million in 2012, compared with a loss of €9 million the previous year, according to consolidated accounts for the group.

The Religious Sisters of Charity owns St Vincent's Healthcare Group Ltd, the accounts of which have just been filed.

The group includes the private and public hospitals in Ballsbridge, and St Michael's Hospital, Dún Laoghaire.

Directors' remuneration came to €569,292. There were three executive directors on the board in 2012, including chief executive Nicholas Jermyn. The remuneration total includes both Mr Jermyn's public salary and his privately- funded payment, according to a group spokesman.

Before Christmas it emerged that Mr Jermyn was receiving a public salary of €136,282 and a private payment of €136,951, making him one of the highest-paid health service administrators in the State, if not the highest.

The director of finance and the director of nursing with the group were also receiving public salaries and privately- sourced payments, it also emerged. These two executives are not on the group’s board.

There were four directors in receipt of income from the group in 2012. Apart from Mr Jermyn, consultants Michael Keane and Diarmuid O'Donoghue were on the group board during 2012. Mr O'Donoghue retired in June 2012 and was replaced by David Brophy.

One of the group's subsidiaries, Pianora Ltd, was set up in 2000 to develop and let the ground-level and multi-storey car parks at the public hospital in Ballsbridge.

The 2012 accounts for Pianora show its losses more than doubled to €750,000, from the €350,317 loss recorded for the previous year, with income plummeting to €297,996 from the previous year’s €814,065.

The company pays a car park management company from its income, as well as its bank debt, mainly with Ulster Bank, a spokesman said.

He said the fall in income was due to changes in the rules governing VAT and an exemption that had existed for public bodies and car park charges. The lower income level will continue for future years, he said.

The accounts give a value to the car parks of €23.4 million and say they cost €21 million to build. Bank loans were €11.6 million.

The overall group income was €362.4 million in 2012, a very slight fall on the previous year. Assets were valued at just over half a billion euro.

The group had an average of 3,406 employees during 2012, costing €230.3 million. These figures are similar to 2011, although in that year there were slightly more staff working for the same cost.

A defined-benefit pension scheme operated for the employees of the private hospital ceased to accrue for future service by its members at the end of 2012, and all members were transferred to a defined-contribution scheme.

The public hospital employees are part of the voluntary hospitals superannuation scheme, and the accounts say the directors believe responsibility for the associated liability rests with the Department of Health and Children.

The private hospital paid an annual rent of €1.2 million to the Religious Sisters of Charity in 2012.