HSE adviser and bonus pay now tops €4.6m

Dr Galen

From IrishHealth.com

The HSE has paid out just over €4.6 million in payments to Prof Brendan Drumm's top advisers and in bonuses to permanent officials over the past four years, new figures have revealed.

The latest figures on payments made to three advisers in Prof Drumm's "kitchen cabinet", show that between them they received €2.09 million in payments for their consultancy work in the four-year period 2005-2008.

Maureen Lynott, who advises Prof Drumm on performance management, received a total of €900,925 for her advisory services between 2005 and the end of 2008, while Karl Anderson, who advises on issues management and personalised communications, received €771,313 during the same period.

Another adviser, Dr Sean McGuire, who left his post in 2007, received €420,446 for his services between 2005 and 2007.

The latest figures on advisers' pay were obtained by irishhealth.com under FOI. The adviser posts are not full-time positions.

In the FOI response, the HSE told irishhealth.com that the CEO's advisers were engaged following an EU procurement process.

"They are engaged as consultants, not as employees of the HSE. As such they are not entitled to holiday pay or pension contributions from the HSE."

The HSE said the advisers were engaged for a fixed duration and are paid professional fees on a per diem basis. The payments quoted are inclusive of 21% VAT.

The latest figures bring to €4.64 million the total payout to the CEO's advisers and in bonus payments paid to top HSE officials in recent years.

Over the past two years, senior management officials in the HSE have shared €2.55 million between them in bonuses in respect of work done during 2006 and 2007.

However, bonuses are not expected to be paid this year to top HSE staff.

It was recently revealed that the HSE had paid our a total of €51 million in payments to consultancies and advisers in various areas since its inception in 2005.

just read this......sweet jesus are these guys for real. They want to cut everything, close beds, cut back on community services and then we hear about this?

Surely the astronomical amount that has been spent on advisors should be showing some return by now? What are these people advising on? Is there no-one within the HSE or DoH with the necessary skills, that could do the same job?

Can we have any faith at all in Prof Drumm anymore, does anyone else think it's time to move on and have a new head of the HSE?

DrIndy

they decided not to go ahead with the redundancy plan for the swollen middle manager rank in the HSE because it was too expensive - so everyone is staying on!

Despite the time with Drumm in charge, I have not seen one iota of change or improvement in the public health service.

Dr Galen

in fairness I've seen some, mostly on the community intervention side of things, but not much really, and certainly not enough to call it a return on an investment of nearly 5 million

Capt'n Midnight

How could the redundancy be too expensive ?
In this example it would only cost the HSE €4690 to drop someone,
so the €4.6 would easily cover 100,000 redundancies :eek:

Of course non-Statutory redundancy payments would be a lot more, and people have different levels of service but you should be able to see that the magnitudes are similar.

https://redundancy.entemp.ie/rpsportal/initialiseRedundancyCalculatorAction.do?locale=en

Employment Details
Date of Birth: 01/01/1960
Date of Commencement of Employment: 1/1/2000
Date of Notice of Redundancy: 1/1/2009
Date of Termination of Employment: 4/4/2009
Gross Weekly Pay: €2000.00
Wage ceiling prevailing at the time: €600.00 This is the Wage Ceiling value
Calculation of Service
Years: 9
Days: 97
Weeks Due: 18.54
Plus Bonus Week: 1
Total Weeks: 19.54
Redundancy Entitlements
Lump sum due to Employee: 19.54 x €600.00 = €11724.00
Rebate due to Employer: €11724.00 x 60.0% = €7034.40

randylonghorn

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

How could the redundancy be too expensive ?
In this example it would only cost the HSE €4690 to drop someone,
so the €4.6 would easily cover 100,000 redundancies :eek:

I suspect there are a lot of people in this forum know a lot more about it than I do, Capt'n, but my understanding is that a lot of these middle and senior managers were absorbed into the HSE from the old HBs, and would be entitled to credit for their service under the HBs.

Many would have 30+ years service, and be on good salaries ... even statutory redundancy would be a fair bit, and I'm sure they would not accept basic stat. redundancy without a strong fight.

Must be some kind of an early retirement deal that could be hammered out though, that would save a few quid and release them from wandering around trying to look busy and getting in every one's way.

AmcD

It is amazing how all the health boards merged into the HSE and yet still there was no loss of jobs. Just one downside to expensive redundancies- won't these people need to go on the dole? At least at the moment they are contributing by paying taxes.

randylonghorn

AmcD wrote: »

It is amazing how all the health boards merged into the HSE and yet still there was no loss of jobs.

Maybe I'm an old cynic, but I don't find it one bit amazing ...

... unfortunately!

AmcD wrote: »

Just one downside to expensive redundancies- won't these people need to go on the dole? At least at the moment they are contributing by paying taxes.

Which is why I'm thinking some kind of early retirement deal might work out better all round ... though I guess that adds to pressure on shaky pension funds! >.<

AmcD

Ok I lied. I am not amazed at the HSE forming without any loss of jobs. I would be genuinely amazed though if the HSE started their slashbacks in administration, instead of with the NCHDs. Next they should question how much they need all those advisers, spin doctors and PR firms. Do any of these people contribute to healthcare?

Capt'n Midnight

randylonghorn wrote:

Many would have 30+ years service, and be on good salaries ... even statutory redundancy would be a fair bit, and I'm sure they would not accept basic stat. redundancy without a strong fight.

I was pointing out that the minimum cost to the HSE is just €240 for each week of statutory redundancy they have to pay out since it's capped and they get a rebate from the government. Anything after that is goodwill / blackmail depending on your viewpoint.

We all know they would get a lot more than that.