561 years to return €190k HSE overpay

Blundering HSE officials overpaid an employee by more than €190,000 — and have struck a deal allowing the now-retired worker 561 years to pay the money back.

The error and its handling are revealed in an internal audit of the payroll office which handles salaries for staff in the HSE’s Dublin-Mid-Leinster and Dublin-North East regions.

Some 1,144 overpayments were reviewed during the audit — 76 a year over 15 years — with 6% of staff in the region being overpaid to some extent.