‘Not enough staff to prevent top-up pay scandals’

The HSE’s chief financial officer has admitted the organisation does not have enough staff to prevent a repeat of the Central Remedial Clinic and Rehab top-up scandals after the latest multi-million euro financial crisis to hit the system.

HSE chief financial officer and interim deputy director general Stephen Mulvany admitted the situation amid fresh questioning over the recently revealed €7m St John of God’s top-ups controversy, which has occurred almost four years on from the Central Remedial Clinic crisis.

Speaking during a Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting, which also heard that HSE claims the organisation was “systemically starved” of necessary funding when it was created in late 2004, and warnings patients are treated like “collateral damage”, Mr Mulvany said staff issues mean financial scandals are always possible.