Cost of `on-call' pay

AT the meeting of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts yesterday, the Comptroller and Auditor General asked the Beaumont Hospital…

AT the meeting of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts yesterday, the Comptroller and Auditor General asked the Beaumont Hospital board to justify on call" payments of £1,059,762 to radiographers and laboratory staff in 1994. An auditor's report said the payments had exceeded the gross basic salary of some of those staff.

The chief executive, Mr Pat Lyons, said the rates were in line with 1982 agreements made with the Department of Health. Since the hospital provided a 24-hour neurological service, the on-call system was a necessity. Mr Lyons told Mr, Eric Byrne, (DL) the extra shifts were voluntary.

The Auditor General questioned the chief executive of St Luke's and St Anne's Hospital, Mr Robert Martin, over ex gratia payments of £6,000 and £3,000 made respectively to the previous CEO and secretary to the board when they retired. Such payments were in breach of regulations.

Mr Martin said the payments were made for work done in the people's own time, and were a thank-you gesture to them. The board was not aware that it should have made the payments as part of overtime, he added.