IrishMedicalNews

Health staff receive fees for board membership

Written by Priscilla Lynch Monday, 08 February 2010 15:05

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Five health sector staff have been given special permission by the Department of Finance to receive thousands of euro in fees on top of their normal salaries for sitting on State boards, IMN can reveal.

The “one person, one salary” Government policy provides that public servants should not receive additional remuneration for undertaking other duties in the public service, such as acting as chairpersons or directors of State-sponsored bodies or serving on commissions or other such bodies; except in exceptional circumstances as sanctioned by the Department of Finance.

Twenty-one public servants received such a sanction in the years 2005 to 2009 including five civil servants ranging in grade from clerical officer to assistant secretary, five employees of State bodies, three local authority staff, two teachers and two lecturers.

One of the five health staff who received the sanction is a HSE employee who was given permission to receive fees for sitting on the Dormant Accounts Board. The Board’s 10 members were paid  €79,498 in fees and €8,208 in expenses and meeting costs in 2008. The Board is set to be abolished, following the recommendation of the McCarthy Report.

The other four health staff who received the board fees sanction are employed by voluntary agencies, two of whom sit on the Board of the NTPF (National Treatment Purchase Fund) while the remaining two sit on the Board of HIQA (Health Information and Quality Authority).

In addition, at least one member of the HSE Board also received the sanction. HSE Board members, bar the Chairman, are paid fees of €15,750 per annum.