THE HEALTH Service Executive has proposed to the Government that 200 senior managerial and 800 lower level clerical and administrative posts should go as part of a new voluntary early retirement scheme.
The HSE has told the Department of Health and the Department of Finance that it would need "seed funding" of about €30 million to finance the proposed redundancy programme.
This money would be repaid by the HSE from the savings generated by the programme over a number of years.
Informed sources said the HSE proposals would see staff under the age of 50 who left as part of the early retirement programme receiving six weeks' pay for every year of service subject to receiving a maximum of two years' salary. Staff at grade eight level are paid up to €83,000 per year.
Sources said the proposed redundancy payment levels were in keeping with previous arrangements in the public service sanctioned by the Department of Finance.
However, it is understood that in recent weeks the Department of Health has signalled to the HSE that it has problems with the concept of a redundancy scheme for lower level staff.
Instead it is believed to have argued that such personnel should be redeployed elsewhere in the health service if their current posts are surplus to requirements.
The Department of Health will make no final decision on any redundancy programme until the outcome of an assessment of the HSE's structures being carried out by consultants McKinsey is completed and studied by the Government.
In its proposals the HSE has suggested the early retirement scheme could operate in two waves.
Initially the programme would target 200 senior posts at grade eight or above. The second wave would involve the 800 positions at grades three to seven.
The HSE would seek to identify roles which could be discontinued, amalgamated or reorganised. Staff in posts affected following this review would be offered a choice of a transfer to another location or to another post at a similar level or to take the early retirement package.
The redundancy proposals follow an in-depth assessment of administrative staff numbers carried out internally by the HSE and by an outside consultancy firm commissioned by the organisation.
The external report found that while the number of clerical, administrative and managerial staff compared favourably with those in similar publicly-owned health service organisations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, there were too many staff at senior levels.
It said the proportionate number of managers within the overall clerical, administrative and managerial ranks was "slightly higher" than in the National Health Service in the UK. But it also warned that there were "significant variations or anomalies" in the way management grades were deployed across the various regions.
The external consultants also said an initial review indicated there "has not been an effective and coherent multi-disciplinary national manpower planning system within the health service".
However, HSE sources said the bulge in management numbers in some parts of the country was inherited from the former health board system and was something the organisation was keen to address.
Minister for Health Mary Harney has stated that there could be scope for a voluntary redundancy programme in the HSE.
