The Government has ruled out any bonus payment for the new chief executive of the HSE
THE NEW chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) will be paid a salary of €228,466 – considerably less than the current incumbent – Minister for Health Mary Harney has revealed. In addition, the Government has ruled out the payment of any form of bonus to the new HSE chief.
Ms Harney said the Government had decided to link the financial rate for the top HSE job with that paid to the secretary general of the Department of Finance and the secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach.
The current HSE chief executive, Prof Brendan Drumm, was on a basic salary of up to €371,291 in addition to a potential bonus.
Late last year there was considerable controversy after The Irish Timesrevealed that Prof Drumm was to receive a bonus of €70,000 for work carried out in 2008 at a time when staff were facing a second round of pay cuts.
Ms Harney told the Dáil last week that the proposed new salary for the next HSE chief executive was in line with the recommendations of the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in reports in 2007 and 2009. The review body examines pay levels for posts at the top of the public service. “A higher remuneration level was approved for the current chief executive on his appointment to reflect the particular challenges for the first appointee to the post,” she said.
The former head of the State’s national cancer control programme, Prof Tom Keane, has emerged as the frontrunner for the post of chief executive following a series of interviews.
As part of the recruitment process the HSE commissioned a consultancy firm to conduct an international search for candidates for the post. In addition, the job was advertised publicly.
Ms Harney said the head-hunting firm, Amrop Strategis, received a fee of €34,000. In addition, the bill for advertising the position in The Irish Times, The Sunday Times, Sunday Independent, Irish Independentand The Economistcame to €25,055.
The Minister said she understood the recruitment consultants had approached 113 potentially suitable candidates and subsequently met 25 of these. She also said there were 40 responses received as a result of the advertisement placed in newspapers.
She said a shortlist of 10 candidates was then drawn up.
Prof Keane was interviewed by members of the HSE board several weeks prior to his return to Canada following completion of his term as head of the national cancer control programme. The other candidates were interviewed last week.
Last Friday a number of candidates were telephoned by the recruitment company and informed that they had been unsuccessful in their bid to succeed Prof Drumm.
The HSE board is expected to consider the recruitment of the chief executive when it meets on Thursday.