Unadvertised HSE jobs filled by relatives of staff

HEALTH Service Executive staff in several parts of the country have been securing jobs for their own family members without holding an open competition as required under the HSE’s own general recruitment policy.

The Irish Examiner has established that temporary vacancies which have arisen in the HSE in Cork and Limerick in recent weeks have largely been filled by the spouses and children of HSE staff. None of thevacant positions were publicly advertised.

The revelations have raised fear and anger that there may be a widespread culture of providing jobs for relatives within the HSE at a time when there are more than 440,000 people on the Live Register.

Fine Gael health spokesman, James Reilly said such blatant examples of nepotism among HSE employees provided further evidence of the secrecy and lack of transparency in how the HSE operated.

“It’s symptomatic of Fianna Fáil and their ‘jobs for the boys’ culture which seems to have permeated down to the HSE,” said Dr Reilly.

“People are entitled to believe that a public body funded by the taxpayer like the HSE should operate in a fair and equitable manner when it comes to hiring staff,” said Dr Reilly.

In Cork, the children of at least four senior managers have been appointed as clerical officers in the HSE South area for temporary positions as part of the Back to School Clothing and Footwear scheme. None of the positions were advertised internally or externally.

Among those to obtain jobs were: Orlaith Healy, the daughter of HSE South’s regional director of operations, Pat Healy; Gillian O’Brien, daughter of HSE South assistant national director of human resources, Barry O’Brien; Richard Laide; son of HSE South senior finance official, Mick Laide and Mark O’Donovan, son of HSE’s head of procurement, John O’Donovan.

Under HSE recruitment policy, all vacancies are generally filled by open competitions which are advertised in both local and national media and the HSE’s own website.

However, a HSE South spokesperson said the HSE applied the Code of Practice for Emergency Short Term Appointments for these jobs due to the short timeframe. Such a code allows the HSE to hire staff from people whose CVs are on file.

In Limerick, spouses and children of at least five senior staff in the HSE Mid-West region were interviewed last week forpositions as temporary community welfare officers.

The vacancies were only advertised internally on May 28 and were confined to suitably qualified existing HSE staff.

However, the Irish Examiner is aware that children and husbands of existing HSE community welfare officers actually secured some of the positions.

It has also established that one applicant, with no family connection to the HSE, whose CV had been kept on file was not called for interview.

No spokesperson for the HSE Mid-West region was available for comment over the weekend.