The Health Service Executive has confirmed it paid out more than €880,000 in staff relocation expenses earlier this month when A&E and surgical services were transferred from one hospital in Co Tipperary to another 22 miles away.
It said 254 individual payments were made to nursing and other members of staff when the services transferred from Our Lady's Hospital in Cashel to South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel on January 12th.
It is understood some nurses were paid more than €10,000 each to participate in the move.
The total payout by the HSE came to €888,769, which means staff were on average paid €3,499 to co-operate with the plan to relocate services.
The move, which had been in the pipeline for years, has resulted in all acute hospital services for south Tipperary being provided from one site.
A High Court agreement in 1996 meant some staff in Cashel had what were called letters of comfort, which entitled them to opt out of any future bid to move them to Clonmel if services they were providing were moved there. It also made it clear no staff should be worse off as a result of the move.
Those with letters of comfort were therefore paid more in relocation expenses. However, staff without letters of comfort were also given relocation expenses as were staff in Cashel with letters of comfort who refused to participate in the move.
It is understood nurses who had letters of comfort and were willing to move to Clonmel, for example, were paid more than €10,000 in relocation allowances, while nurses who did not have them and moved were paid about €3,000.
Also nurses with letters of comfort who decided not to move were paid about €2,000. There was also an agreement to give them some additional leave days.
Liz Curran, industrial relations officer with the Irish Nurses Organisation, said that following extensive negotiations with management, with the assistance of the Labour Relations Commission, a comprehensive package of proposals around the move emerged on which staff were balloted.
"The proposals included a relocation package for nursing staff in Cashel," she said. "The INO are very happy with the package negotiated on behalf of its members."
Doctors in south Tipperary had been complaining before the move that the ongoing division of acute medical and surgical services across two hospitals was unsafe.
Dr Paud O'Regan, a consultant physician in the Clonmel hospital, said in 2003 that the division of services was resulting in delayed diagnosis and delayed treatment, as well as unnecessary transportation from one hospital to another of frequently very ill, and often very old patients.
The transfer went smoothly but the Clonmel hospital has been closed to visitors, save in exceptional circumstances, since last week as a result of an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug.