HSE to meet State-funded agencies over top-ups

The HSE will today begin meeting board members from all State-funded voluntary hospitals and disability agencies to ensure they are not paying top-up allowances to senior staff members.

The move comes after a turbulent 5½-hour meeting of the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee yesterday, where members of the Central Remedial Clinic's board were repeatedly asked to resign over pay and governance issues.

The board's chairman James Nugent said he would consider the request with other members and revert back to the Oireachtas committee.

It emerged at yesterday’s meeting that the CRC’s former chief executive Paul Kiely received a tax-free lump sum of €200,000 funded from charitable donations when he retired earlier this year.

Mr Kiely’s successor as chief executive Brian Conlan did not appear at the meeting, after resigning earlier in the week.

The committee heard Mr Conlan also received top-up allowances which had been partly drawn from charitable sources. Mr Conlan rejected this in a statement yesterday.

CRB board members told the committee the clinic was contractually bound to continue to pay top-up allowances – worth up to €130,000 annually – to four remaining executives.

The HSE meetings today, meanwhile, will force all State-funded voluntary hospitals to ensure they comply with public pay policy.

It emerged recently that at least 11 agencies were paying senior staff unauthorised private allowances.