Sir, – The failure of the HSE to take action to stop top-up payments to senior staff is yet another example of how the insiders look after the insiders, and as the people receiving these utterly cynical payments were able to eyeball the HSE management face to face, the HSE blinked first ("HSE U-turn means some executives may retain pay top-ups", Front Page, June 12th).
I bet if cleaners or hospital porters had been found to have been overpaid then the HSE would stop those payments immediately and request a repayment of the amounts already paid.
But given the HSE lacks the guts to take on these overpaid people directly, there are other options for dealing with the issue of senior public-sector staff abusing both the letter and the spirit of the policies of austerity everyone else faces.
The easiest way would be for every single person above a certain grade across the entire public sector to be required to publish their tax certificate, as is the norm in most countries, and face the judgment of society. However, as this would also cover the political class it’s unlikely to happen.
Or the HSE could change the rules so that those employed by the public sector must also declare their private-sector income and then the HSE could deduct funding to the relevant health organisation by the amount paid that exceeded the public-sector cap.
A similar tactic would also work for former office holders, who seem to think that it is acceptable to receive a public-sector pension while still being employed elsewhere.– Yours, etc,
DESMOND FitzGERALD,
Canary Wharf,
London.