Madam, – To read that a bonus payment of €70,000 has been cleared by the HSE to be paid to its chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm (Front page, October 14th) comes as an incredible shock to me and all other parents of children awaiting surgery in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.
The HSE has informed Dr Paul Oslizlok (and his colleagues) that they did not have the funds to implement in full the recommendations of the UK-based DNV Consortium report, Right Care, Right Time, Right Place (2008). This is a report the HSE commissioned.
The report outlined that the hospital needed more intensive care unit beds and staff than had even been sought by the hospital from the HSE. Had those recommendations been implemented in full then I doubt that there would today be 120 children waiting for life-changing cardiac surgery. I also doubt that the surgeons who perform these operations would have had to cancel 16 operations in September.
Dr Oslizlok has stated recently that should the current conditions be allowed to continue it is inevitable that some child will die. This situation is at crisis point and has been for a number of years. Yet the HSE manage to find money to pay a bonus to Prof Drumm to reward him for a job well done. For those of us in the system, it is anything but a job well done. We may be a first world country, but we have third-world intensive care conditions for the children of Ireland.
The mind boggles at what the €1.4 million in performance payment to the senior HSE staff in respect of the year 2007 could have otherwise funded.
While I do not dispute what the Minister for Health Mary Harney has said, that the bonus must be paid under his contract, I am sure that there is no clause in the contract to say that Prof Drumm must accept the bonus. I would urge him to refuse to draw down this money and let the money go back into the system. – Yours, etc,
A chara – The attempt by the Taoiseach to defend an exorbitant €70,000 bonus to the head of the HSE just shows how painfully out of touch this Government has become (Home News, October 15th). Considering Fianna Fáil has been in power for the past 12 years, telling us that it relates to a “historic situation in 2007” which doesn’t apply to “this administration” is palpable nonsense and an unacceptable abdication of duty.
From the obstinate refusal to reshuffle a clearly underperforming Tánaiste to the perverse rejection that previous budgetary profligacy contributed in any way to the current fiscal situation, the Taoiseach consistently demonstrates an inability to accept any responsibility for mistakes in the past. It’s an essential prerequisite for any corrective process and it lies at the heart of the Government’s incapacity to lead.
If Brian Cowen wants to demonstrate he’s in charge and able to take the necessary tough decisions then he needs to “man up” and tell Brendan Drumm we can’t afford his bonus, whether he deserves it or not. If he can’t do that, then he’s in the wrong job. – Is mise,
Madam, – Upon returning to Ireland for a holiday last August, I came face to face with the the level of anger among people over the state of the economy and the performance of the Government.
I naively assumed that the Government would commence a more conciliatory approach to the electorate and to the obvious and apparent angry mood, and by doing so, taking a more pro-active approach in cutting expenditure in every Government department, and every expense possible.
Keeping in touch as I do, I can only conclude at this stage that this Government is actually trying to incite a revolution. Prof Drumm’s €70,000 bonus appears to be the latest in a never-ending line of either “what can we get away with?” or “they’re probably too dumb to notice” missives from the Government
The continuing waiting lists, number of people on trolleys and lives still being put at risk by the misjudged efforts of Prof Drumm and Minister Harney, despite the brave efforts of the overworked doctors and nurses at the front line, all contradict any sort of sustainable argument for Prof Drumm’s bonus.
Are these people living on another planet? When are they going to wake up to the Irish people’s (and more pertinently to them, the Irish electorate’s) anger towards this sort of gesture while the rest of the country suffers.
This Government is completely out of touch with its people and the sooner it is forced from office the better. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – If €70,000 is deemed an appropriate performance-related bonus for Brendan Drumm’s failure to reform our health system, imagine the size of the bonus he would get if he managed to improve the operation of that health system. – Yours, etc,