Man hired to slash HSE wages gets €1m contract

THE salary for the man hired to slash the Health Service Executive’s wage bill will make him the highest-paid administrator in the organisation apart from chief executive Brendan Drumm.

Man hired to slash HSE wages gets €1m contract

The director of human resources, Sean McGrath, will be paid €205,000 plus perks when he takes up his post with the HSE.

It is worth more than €1m over the lifetime of the contract and is €46,000 more than the salary a specialist civil service review panel recommended for the job.

The HSE said it asked for permission to break the limit set by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration to secure the services of the Mr McGrath who is leaving a similar post at National Irish Bank.

“The HSE sought the approval of the Department of Health and Children and the Department of Finance to pay a salary higher than the rate recommended by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration to secure his appointment.

“On that basis, the Department of Health and Children conveyed the sanction of the Department of Finance for a remuneration package, on the basis of a five-year fixed-term non-renewable contract,” a statement said.

Mr McGrath’s salary is 8% higher than any grade of non-medical consultant post in the HSE as set down by the pay review body.

The full breakdown of these salary scales provided by the Department of Health has also shown the most lucrative non-consultant HSE positions are all in the clerical, administration and management grades.

The review had decided the highest earners in these grades would be the Director of the National Hospitals Office and National Director of Primary, Continuing and Community Care with salaries of €189,526.

However, the HSE said to recruit the right personnel from the private sector it reserves the right to go beyond these recommendations.

Previously it had to ask for extra resources to secure the services of Professor Drumm to be its chief executive. Mr McGrath does come with a good track record. Before joining NIB in 2006 he worked at the EBS building society where he oversaw reforms of its human resources database, centralising all employee information and streamlining its interaction with employees.

During this time EBS was also involved in renegotiating its pension arrangements.

These were eventually finalised after he left and were praised by the unions involved for the manner in which the negotiations were conducted.

In his role Mr McGrath’s task will have to ensure the HSE’s employment levels do not go above 112,245 this year.

x

More in this section

Lunchtime News

Newsletter

Keep up with stories of the day with our lunchtime news wrap and important breaking news alerts.

Cookie Policy Privacy Policy Brand Safety FAQ Help Contact Us Terms and Conditions

© Examiner Echo Group Limited