HSE defends €80,000 bonus for Drumm

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has defended its decision to award its chief executive an €80,000 bonus less than a fortnight after ordering a spending freeze in all hospitals and health facilities.

Professor Brendan Drumm received the performance-related payment on top of his €360,000 annual pay packet just days after the HSE issued a statement denying it was seeking approval to increase his salary.

The bonus was awarded despite the HSE’s admission that it was running over-budget and needed to impose major restrictions on spending including a ban on hospitals and clinics recruiting new staff, replacing staff leaving the service, arranging illness or maternity cover or bringing back staff who are due to return from career breaks or study or maternity leave.

HSE board chairman Liam Downey said yesterday the payout — the second bonus Prof Drumm has received since he took up the post just over two years ago — was in recognition of Prof Drumm’s achievements during 2006 and was “entirely appropriate”.

“The board of the HSE believes this award is fitting given Prof Drumm’s performance and accomplishments during 2006, along with the energy, drive and commitment he has applied to his responsibilities,” Mr Downey said.

He said the bonus scheme, which is capped at 25% of Prof Drumm’s annual salary, was included at the outset as part of the pay package agreed with him when he was appointed as the first ever HSE chief executive.

He claimed that the bonus was “lower than the compensation arrangements typically available for similar private sector positions”.

The timing of the payment will, however, increase tensions between the HSE and health service unions such as Siptu, Impact and the Irish Nurses Organisation. The unions met in joint session in the wake of the spending freeze announcement to issue a demand for assurances that key services would not be affected.

Already patients are beginning to report the cancellation of some dental appointments, eye tests and infant developmental checks because of staff absences which are not being covered by locum or agency personnel.

The “recruitment pause” as the HSE has termed the freeze, currently only applies to September but it will be reviewed on October 1 and given the scale of the overruns — over €140 million — it is thought likely to be extended to the end of the year.