HSE chief’s €370k salary ‘should be cut to €180k’, MoS poll reveals

MORE than nine out of every 10 people think the head of our heath service is paid too much, an Irish Mail on Sunday/Ireland Thinks poll reveals.

Health Service Executive chief Paul Reid arguably has one of the most difficult jobs in the country right now as he tries to lead the fight against the spread of Covid-19, while also firefighting the fallout from the biggest cyberattack in the history of the State.

However, the vast majority of the public believe the HSE chief, whose basic salary is just over €370,000, is above what they consider to be ‘reasonable’.

On average, respondents to the poll, believed Mr Reid should be paid €180,000.

Just 4% of those surveyed said a salary of €350,000 or over is ‘a reasonable salary for the chief executive of the

5% said Mr Reid should get under €50k

health service’. Broken down into different pay categories, the highest number of the those polled (25%) said they regard a salary of between €100,000 and €149,000 to be a ‘reasonable salary’.

And 21% said they thought a salary of between €150,000 and €199,000 would be more appropriate. However, 18% said they felt a salary of between €50,000 and €99,000 was more reasonable for a man in Mr Reid’s position, with 5% saying he should be paid under €50,000.

And 3% felt a salary of between €300,000 and €349,000 was appropriate.

Mr Reid is the CEO of the largest employer in the State, heading up an organisation that employs more than 100,000 people.

Figures released following a Freedom of Information request earlier this year revealed Mr Reid was the best paid non-medical member among HSE staff last year.

They show Mr Reid’s pay was made up of basic pay of €370,136 and allowances of €49,966. In March, a HSE spokeswoman confirmed Mr Reid is not a member of the HSE pension scheme, and that the €49,966 ‘is a payment in lieu of pension contribution’.

Mr Reid’s appointment was given the go-ahead by Cabinet in April 2019 on a salary of €350,000. This was increased by just over €20,000 last year, when the numbers of HSE non-medical staff earning more than €100,000 rose by 27% – or up 144 from 534 in 2019 to 678 – due to public sector pay rises.

Mr Reid’s basic pay of €370,000 is significantly higher than the €211,742 salary for the office of An Taoiseach. And it dwarfs the basic salary enjoyed by his UK counterpart, NHS chief Simon Stevens, who is reportedly paid under £195,000 (€232,370) for heading up an organisation with 1.3 million staff.

His pay package is just under twice that of his nominal boss, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. It is also significantly higher than the €211,000 currently paid to the secretary general of the Department of Health, Robert Watt.

The poll was conducted on Saturday, May 15, with a sample size of 1,237.