Health providers ordered to stop top-ups

A raft of legal challenges are anticipated after hospitals and healthcare providers were given three months to stop allowance and top-up payments being made to more than 140 senior managers.

The Health Service Executive has rejected the majority of business cases made for the retention of these payments and written to section 38 agencies — voluntary healthcare providers who get funding from the State — telling them to stop them “as a matter of urgency”.

The HSE said it is “not the employer of the individuals in receipt of the allowances” and any legal considerations would be between the employees and the agencies themselves.