Secret payments an unhealthy practice

Your report (Irish Examiner, Nov 19), that so many publicly-funded healthcare institutions are flagrantly breaching public pay policy with impunity, by making secret top-level remuneration payments in a manner that is not decipherable to taxpayers, conveys an impression that these institutions are operating at the behest of feudal aristocrats who are accountable to nobody.

These practices also provide an insight into the prevailing standard of corporate governance where these prevail and will prompt grave public concern that, if secret deals can be made with respect to top-level pay, what other corners are being cut, perhaps with devastating consequences for patient care, welfare and the cost-efficient treatment of patients.

Advocates have strongly recommended that tax evaders living overseas might be granted longer periods of residency in Ireland without incurring any Irish taxation liability, or penalty, if they provided substantial philanthropic donations to unspecified charities.