Six senior jobs awarded to internal candidates
INTELLECTUAL disability centre Stewarts Hospital is under fire for making internal appointments to six senior hospital positions – as the HSE continues to investigate salary issues there.
The Irish Mail on Sunday has revealed when the previous CEO, Maura Donovan, retired from her €192,926-a-year position, her replacement, Gerry Mulholland, was an internal hire.
Documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act show five other senior positions have been filled since 2010, all of them internally, including one former training consultant who was made a fulltime member of staff.
A similar internal appointment of Brian Conlon at the CRC last year was strenuously objected to by the HSE. Mr Conlon subsequently resigned.
There has been a ban on hiring and promotions in the public sector since 2009, but exceptions can be made in health if the HSE is consulted. When Stewarts was asked if it had done so in these cases, it declined to answer.
University College Cork public policy lecturer Aodh Quinlivan said: ‘Recruitment or promotion requests have been granted if a public body can fund a position from its own resources and remain within the employment control framework. This being Ireland, nothing is clear-cut.’
Salaries at Stewarts Hospital are funded by the HSE. The hospital declined to give exact salaries but in 2013, Eddie Denihan was promoted to executive director of care, earning €83,252 to €100,796; Mary Burke was made programme director, earning €65,376 to €79,841; Gillian Ledwidge Dunne became HR director after internal advertis- ing, earning €65,376 to €79,841. Philip Halpenny was appointed executive finance director in 2010. He earned €103,290 in 2012. In November 2012, a training consultant who was working in the hospital since 2007 was made director of clinical services, earning €65,376 to €79,841.
According to the documents, only two of those internal appointments – the CEO position and the HR director – were advertised internally. Asked if this breached the hiring ban, a Stewarts spokesman said the hospital board made the appointments, and the hospital is not a ‘constituent part’ of the HSE.
However, a spokeswoman for the HSE said: ‘As Stewarts is a large Section 38-funded agency, it is required to fully comply with public pay policy and the employment control framework and all of the information
‘It must comply with public pay policy’
requirements and approvals sought by the HSE in relation to the appointment of posts.’
Since last year, voluntary hospitals have to give details of senior managers’ pay to the HSE, she said. ‘Certain issues were identified in respect of Stewarts hospital which remain under discussion between the HSE and Stewarts to ensure full compliance with Service Arrangement.’
Wicklow TD Simon Harris, a disability advocate and now on the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘These organisations are receiving vast sums of taxpayers’ money to provide disability services. There needs to be a transparent process in relation to the filling of posts.’