HSE expense bill for 2008 hits €81m
In 2008, the top 30 claimants for travel expenses together took home €626,114, with half of these working in office jobs.
This group claimed 28 times the average annual expense payments of the other 111,000 people working for the HSE in 2008.
The highest expenses earner that year was a consultant doctor in the north east of the country who claimed €31,885 on top of a six-figure salary.
A public health nurse in the west was paid €31,365 for travel and subsistence.
But the bulk of the list – 15 staff members in non- clinical posts – were paid a total in excess of €287,000.
Managers and officers in the National Hospitals’ Office were the most frequent members of the list released by the HSE.
However, an officer from corporate services in the south-east was the highest- earning administrator that year, taking home €26,987.
Two Grade VIII managers, who were entitled to salaries of between €67,000 and €81,000, claimed €20,900. One of these was based in the corporate services division and the other in the National Hospitals’ Office western region.
A manger in the corporate finance division took home an extra €18,842 expenses.
The extent to which administrators claimed the most in expenses was pared back in 2008. Together, 18 managers had sought €436,982 in 2007, representing an average of €24,276. The figure for 2008 was €19,147.
In 2007 €86m worth of receipts were signed off on and the top 30 claimants were given €711,868 between them. That year the list was headed by a team leader in the east with an annual claim of €32,999. A caretaker claimed €22,383.
However, payments to the highest earners were reduced by 10% between 2007 and 2008.
The HSE said this is expected to fall further once 2009 figures are finalised because it has targeted specific reductions in the travel of staff who are not in the front line, such as administrators.
“Reducing expenditure on travel and subsistence without impacting on level of services was a specific target of the HSE’s Value for Money programme in 2008, through targeting all non- essential non-frontline travel. Further efficiencies in travel and subsistence have been implemented in 2009,” it said.
