£86,000 lump sum for former medical chief

THE former medical consultant with the Blood Transfusion Service Board, Dr Terry Walsh, received a lump sum of £86,872 and an annual pension of £29,018 in an early retirement package in April 1995, the House was told by the Minister for Health.

"The urgent need to take steps, such as management restructuring, to restore public confidence in the BTSB as a means of ensuring continuity in blood supplies did not allow for any avoidable delay in vacating the post of chief medical consultant", Mr Noonan said. "Given the terms of Dr Walsh's contract of employment, any alternative to voluntary early retirement would not have produced an outcome for many months, if not years."

Mr Noonan told the House that Mr Ted Keyes, the BTSB's former chief executive officer, had been due to retire on March 1st, 1994. In February, 1994, when it became apparent that there was a possible link between human immunoglobulin anti D and hepatitis C, he had agreed to continue in office until June 1st, 1995. Under the terms of his contract of employment and based on years of service, Mr Keyes was entitled to a lump sum of £28,000 and an annual pension of £7,000, payable from the BTSB pension fund.

Mr Noonan said that, as chief executive officer, Mr Keyes was responsible for the group's management functions, but not for its medical/scientific functions. He was replying to written questions from the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, and from the PD and Fianna Fail spokeswomen on health, Ms Liz O'Donnell and Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn.