Drumm objected to other staff bonuses

HSE CEO Prof Brendan Drumm last year expressed reservations about the level of bonuses recommended for other senior HSE managers.

And a HSE board member last year warned that bonuses for top HSE staff should be only for exceptional performance and were not an entltlement.

Despite queries about the level of awards being raised at HSE board level at the time, bonuses totalling €1.4 million were eventually paid out last year to senior staff in relation to work done during 2007.

Prof Drumm is currently embroiled in major controversy after it was revealed that the HSE board recently approved the payment of a bonus to him of more than €70,000, also relating to his work in 2007. This bonus sum amounts to more than twice the average industrial wage in Ireland.

Although this bonus was technically due to be paid last year, the board had prevaricated over paying it for some time.

Correspondence released to irishhealth.com under Freedom of Information earlier this year showed that Prof Drumm had expressed a number of concerns in relation to some bonus recommendations made by HSE national directors in relation to senior staff.

He had requested a review of these bonuses in advance of endorsing them but said he was subsequently advised by the human resources department in the HSE that "it would be difficult to reduce awards for performance year 2007 at this stage."

A HSE board member, Donal de Buitleir, who was also chair of the remuneration committee, said the Board was asking Prof Drumm to consider reducing some of the awards recommended to 5% or less of the salaries concerned.

The documentation shows that recommendations for other staff bonuses were accepted by the HSE board.

However, this suggestion to cut some bonuses does not appear to have been acted on and last year all the bonuses, with the exception of Prof Drumm's, were eventually paid in full.

Prof Drumm, the documentation shows, had expressed concerns about some of the awards but on further consideration and due to the fact that the bonus system was due to be changed, he decided to proceed with the payments.

In the event, at the request of the Department of Health, the HSE did not pay out awards for 2008 due to
the deterioration in the Government finances.

The HSE board member, Mr de Buitleir, according to the documentation, told Prof Drumm that in future, performance awards should only reward exceptional performance and the pool of funds available for the bonuses is a limit and is not an entitlement.

Last, year senior HSE managers received bonuses ranging up to €30,000 each for 2007.

The 2007 bonus recently recommended for payment to Prof Drumm has yet to be drawn down, according to a reprot in today's Irish Times.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Mary Harney said today approval for the €70,000 bonus to Prof Drumm was not her responsibility. She said the Government made a decision last year that there would be no public sector bonuses in 2008.

The Minister added that there would be no bonuses for 2009 either.

[Posted: Wed 14/10/2009]