DEPT OF HEALTH WANTED €100K FOR PART-TIME POSITION
Salary estimate rose staggering €20k in just 20 minutes, FoI shows
THE Department of Health wanted to pay the HSE’s new chairperson €100,000 a year for working just two days a week.
And astonishingly, the salary estimate rose €20,000 in just 20 minutes after discussions among senior health officials, documents released under a Freedom of Information request have shown.
The Department of Health wanted the pay package to be linked with its plans for a new €250,000-to-€300,000 starting salary for its new chief executive – who is to be appointed following the resignation of the previous CEO amid the CervicalCheck scandal.
The salary for the new chief executive comes with a ‘provision for a higher rate in exceptional circumstances’. Health officials asked that this information be ‘kept confidential’ in communications with the Department of Public
Expenditure, the FoI documents show. In negotiations over a salary for the HSE chairperson – since confirmed as Ciarán Devane – officials struggled to find a similar role for pay comparison.
His beginning salary has now been set at €80,000, and he will play a key role in finding a suitable chief executive as the HSE struggles to overcome the legacy of the CervicalCheck scandal, in which more than 200 women were wrongly told they did not have cervical cancer.
The HSE’s former director general, Tony O’Brien, stepped down in May as the CervicalCheck scandal deepened.
In emails, health officials told the Department of Public Expenditure that the chair of Bórd na Móna was paid €21,600 a year for working four to eight days a month, while the chair of public transport body Córas Iompair Éireann gets €31,500 annually for ten half-day meetings each month and ‘significant further time commitment’.
An official explained that the new HSE chair was seen as a key appointment. One email from the Department of Health said the job would be ‘on the basis of a more substantial role and time commitment than a standard chair and requiring a significantly higher level of remuneration than the standard rates’.
In a preliminary business case sent on June 7, health officials said they would be looking for an €80,000 fee for the role with a five-year term. In it, they provided details of chairperson fees from the private sector including AIB, Smurfit Kappa, Bank of Ireland and CRH.
Twenty minutes later, however, the Department of Health sent a further email to say they now believed a fee of €100,000 should apply to the two-day-a-week position at the top of our beleaguered health system.
The email from the Department of Health explained: ‘Our Sec Gen [Jim Breslin] has just contacted me from a meeting to say that following information received from Fiona Tierney [then chief of the Public Appointments Service] that the fee for the Chair position should be pitched at €100k. The going rate for a non-exec director in the private sector for six meetings per year is €60k. For a Chairman, that is likely to be €100k+.’
The Department of Public Expenditure was unwilling to go higher than €80,000, however.
In a statement, the Department of Health admitted it considered a fee of up to €100,000 for the role but said it agreed upon the rate that was ultimately decided.
It said: ‘Following consideration of the work involved for the chairperson and that at least two days per week would be required to undertake the role, it was agreed that €80,000 was appropriate for the position.’
It said the chairperson would have a key role in helping manage an organisation with 110,000 staff and a budget of almost €16billion next year.
The Department of Public Expenditure said in a statement: ‘The decision on salary level was reached following a review of the business case submitted by the Department of Health. This was an exceptional measure in recognition of the particular nature of the role.’
‘Higher level of remuneration’
DETAILS revealed today of correspondence regarding the pay of the incoming chairman of the Health Service Executive are little short of astonishing.
That the Department of Health initially asked for a salary of €80,000 for the successful applicant is almost besides the point, despite the role only requiring a commitment of two days per week. There is ample evidence to show that similar pay scales apply for equivalent positions across both the public and private sectors.
The principal cause of concern is what was contained in a follow-up communication sent to the Department of Public Expenditure only 20 minutes after the original request. This particular email instead increased the sought-after figure to €100,000, apparently based on information received from the then head of the Public Appointments Service.
It is only right and proper that billions of euro are pumped into the health system every year, but there is no escaping the fact that we taxpayers get a very poor return on our money. To describe the service we receive as less than ideal would be a gross understatement.
Nor should it be forgotten that the HSE has been constantly criticised over its pay structures. Against that backdrop it seems highly inappropriate for the Department of Health to go looking for a 25% increase in the proposed salary, especially given that no candidate was even in a position to refuse any initial offer at that stage.
Thankfully, some common sense prevailed and the Department of Public Expenditure refused to ratify anything higher than €80,000.
Down through the years, we have seen the relevant authorities throwing good money after bad in a vain attempt to deliver a decent health service. But the key lesson that needs to be taken from this particular case is that a far more prudent and cautious approach is needed when it comes to disbursing public funds.
It is all very well for the powers-that-be at the Department of Health to demand an extra €20,000 for a new HSE chairman. But would they be as quick to do so if it was coming out of their own pockets?