HSE official gets full €138k salary on gardening leave

A senior HSE official who has been on gardening leave for the past 18 months due to a multimillion-euro conflict of interest probe is still receiving his full €138,000 salary.

Gerard Hurl has been paid over €200,000 since he was “temporarily” replaced as HSE national ICT director by Fran Thompson in Sept 2010.

The senior official was asked to step aside from the role — which involves the overseeing of a €100m-plus health service IT budget — due to his involvement in the independent Healthcare Informatics Society of Ireland umbrella group.