Health service officials refuse to give up top-ups

At least eight high-ranking health service officials are refusing to give up their right to hidden contract "top-ups" — and have threatened legal action if the money is removed as planned next month.

HSE director general Tony O’Brien confirmed the stand-off is taking place at the latest Dáil public accounts committee meeting yesterday, more than half a year after the depth of the scandal was first made public.

Answering questions from the cross-party public spending watchdog, he said out of 143 health agencies affected — namely HSE funded charities and voluntary hospitals mainly funded by the State — some 85 have discontinued the additional pay-outs to top-level staff.

However, of the remaining 58, 50 are continuing to provide ‘business-case’ information to the HSE on why the practice should continue — with eight insisting that they have “inalienable contractual obligations” to the individuals involved.

All of these eight individuals have sent legal letters to the HSE or have had them sent on their behalf by the health agency they work for insisting the money should not be removed.

Mr O’Brien said the onus is on the individual to “prove” they have a contractual right to the money.

However, after Fine Gael TD Paul Connaughton asked if this means “we can’t lay a finger on them”, he said “no-one” has provided this level of proof as yet. Mr O’Brien confirmed the individuals insisting they should be allowed to keep the money are on “grade eight” payment levels — meaning they receive at least €100,000 a year as their basic salary.

He also confirmed St Vincent’s University Hospital is “swinging around to compliance” but stressed that, at this stage, “they’re still swinging”.

A HSE update report on the ongoing top-ups scandal will be published next month.

CRC report

A long-awaited HSE report into the Central Remedial Clinic financial scandal is unlikely to reveal the full extent of what happened at the group as it cannot investigate the charity wing at the heart of the difficulties.

HSE chief Tony O Brien said he received the report 14 days ago and will give it to the PAC “early next week”.

The document has been drawn up by the HSE’s interim CRC administrator, John Cregan, who has been examining the issue since the start of the year.

However, while it will be in-depth on the CRC itself, it is understood to have been unable to properly examine the linked Friends and Supporters of the CRC, technically a separate entity.

The HSE document, which senior sources initially said could be forwarded to the fraud squad, comes after an entirely new board was independently appointed to the CRC last month.