THE Health Service Executive’s new chief operations officer will be paid a salary of about €190,000, it has emerged.
The position, which was advertised last Friday, is considered by the HSE to be a key element in the reform of its management structure. However, the post has been a source of some controversy in the organisation in the recent past.
A spokesman for the HSE said yesterday that the post was categorised as being the equivalent of a national director grade-one position, which attracts a salary of €188,000 per year.
Management and administrative positions in the HSE are currently subject to the Government’s moratorium on recruitment. However, staff were told in an internal memo last Thursday that the new post had been sanctioned by the Minister for Health and the Minister for Finance.
The advertisement for the post comes at a time when the HSE is facing a budget reduction of up to €1 billion for next year. The HSE is also planning a voluntary redundancy programme for up to 6,000 clerical and administrative staff.
A HSE spokesman said the establishment of the new post would not represent an increase in the size of its top-level senior management team. The duties and responsibilities of the new chief operations officer are currently shared between two existing HSE national directors.
The establishment of the new post has been considered a priority in the organisation for some time.
The position was first advertised more than a year ago and a candidate selected from the process. However, the appointment was held up as a result of a row between the then chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm and the board of the HSE.
The dispute centred around who would have the final say in this process. Official documents obtained last year under the Freedom of Information Act suggested that the board of the HSE sought to have an input.
However, Prof Drumm argued that there was no provision for a process that was already under way – and which was being organised by the Public Appointments Service – to be adjusted.
The documents revealed that the board, which rejected the assertion of interference, withdrew Prof Drumm’s delegated authority to make top-level appointments and said that these would have to be subject to its approval. The board decided not to fill the post of director of operations at that time.