Senior HSE executive to get redundancy package worth almost €400k 

The HSE has confirmed deputy director general Dean Sullivan is to get a redundancy package of almost €400,000 Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

The HSE has confirmed a senior executive is to receive a redundancy package worth almost €400,000 — a deal which was approved by Government departments in recent days.

Dean Sullivan, who first began working with the HSE in 2017, has left "by agreement and redundancy", according to the HSE.

Mr Sullivan was initially hired as deputy director general within the HSE, a role he worked in for five years before being made chief strategy officer in 2022.

In a deal which came about following a mediation process, Mr Sullivan is set to receive a redundancy package of €388,983 but will "not receive all of that amount net".

Commenting on the agreement, HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster said the agreement was based on "a mediation process that provides for confidentiality".

He said the deal was "approved at all appropriate levels including the Departments of Health and Public Expenditure and Reform" and according to Mr Gloster, the agreement "is appropriate and compliant in every respect".

"The HSE has robust legal advice that this agreement is confidential. It would not be possible for the HSE as a public body to act in a manner that would be contrary to the legal standing of the agreement.

The HSE is clear that such agreements are not only allowable but necessary and must be at our disposal into the future. 

“On this occasion we have the agreement of our former employee to waive the confidentiality in respect of the amount and only the amount, not on any other aspect of the content."

The Irish Times reports that as a chief strategy officer in the HSE, Mr Sullivan would have earned an annual salary of about €200,000.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said it would be useful for the HSE to provide more clarity on the situation .

"My understanding from the comments from the HSE this morning is that there was a lengthy legal process undertaken, and that there was a payment made as a result of that, that the payment went through all of the appropriate sanction process, including the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Health," he said.

It follows controversy at RTÉ over exit packages late last week.