Drumm’s bonus - Another example of arrogance

The decision of the Health Service Executive to provide its chief executive, Professor Brendan Drumm, with a bonus of over €70,000 is another breathtaking example of contemptible arrogance.

Irrespective of the timeframe in which this bonus was paid Health Minister Mary Harney has a duty to the Irish taxpayer to explain exactly why and for what reason Prof Drumm was paid this bonus. When pressed to do so yesterday her response was: “I have no responsibility here.”

If she, the Minister for Health, is not responsible, who is?

The simple fact is that she cannot pass this buck. To do so is to treat the Irish public with utter contempt in this matter. The public is expected to fund the bonus but has no right to know how much!

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny noted yesterday that, at the time of his resignation, Fás chief executive Rody Molloy was given an extra €1.1m “outside the guidelines issued by the Department of Finance”.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen essentially defended the payment as what Mr Molloy would have been entitled to if he had been sacked.

There is a dangerous lack of reality permeating through the Government and upper echelons of the public service. They seem totally oblivious to what ordinary people are going through.

Such payments are utterly incomprehensible.

It is not as if Professor Drumm is not being well paid already. He is paid more than the Taoiseach, or the President.

If Ms Harney really believes that Professor Drumm could be earning more in the private sector, she should have no difficulty in understanding why our health costs are so divorced from financial reality.

How anybody could think that somebody who earns over €371,279 should get a bonus of €70,000 just beggars belief, irrespective of the what year it is or the general health of state finances.

US President Barack Obama, the highest paid public official in the United States, will earn €329,000 this year, but Professor Drumm will get 34% more. Yet the Government is saying that everybody must economise in order to help the country to survive. In the light of such conduct nobody should really be surprised that we are in such economic trouble.

In effect, one Government minister after another has been telling the people to “do as I say, not as I do”. This is a perverted form of leadership.

Too many ordinary people feel that they are being asked to make the sacrifices while those in influential positions behave as if the Celtic Tiger were still roaring. They don’t recognise that it is screaming in pain.

Leaders are supposed to lead by example, but our so-called leaders persist in providing lousy example.