The Health Service Executive (HSE) is examining salaries in all voluntary hospitals around the State after it emerged a Limerick hospital has been paying its chief executive a higher salary than her pay band stipulates.
In August, The Irish Times reported that the salary of Emer Martin, chief executive of the St John’s Hospital in Limerick, was increased to that of a higher pay band – breaching the consolidated public pay scales.
The HSE said the voluntary hospital is considered H2, under which chief executives can earn between €99,829 and €106,866. However, the board in 2023 agreed to increase Ms Martin’s salary to that of a H3 hospital, which has a salary scale of between €119,571 and €140,747.
Following publication of the article, an official in the Department of Public Expenditure wrote to the Department of Health about the “unsanctioned rate of remuneration”.
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The email asked the department to provide an update about what occurred, how it occurred and what it is doing to “correct it”.
An official from the Department of Health replied, stating it was “news to us also”, adding that it was “following up with the HSE to try to understand what has happened, and what actions are being taken to rectify”.
In response, the Public Expenditure official said: “We would also strongly advise that your side engages with the HSE such that the HSE checks to see that the CEOs of the other voluntary hospitals are not getting paid a rate that is outside of sanction.”
The emails were released under the Freedom of Information Act.
A spokesman for the Department of Health confirmed that “following the identification of an issue in the Midwest Region, the HSE is undertaking a routine survey of pay-policy compliance across all voluntary hospitals”.
“This is part of ongoing efforts to ensure consistency, transparency, and accountability in the administration of public sector pay,” the spokesman said.
“Compliance with public sector pay policy is a clearly defined condition within the Service Level Agreements between the Health Service Executive (HSE) and each voluntary hospital. Adherence to these terms is a prerequisite for the allocation of public funding.”
The examination of other voluntary hospitals comes amid escalating tensions between the Limerick hospital and the HSE.
In a series of letters between July and August, the HSE said pension entitlements would be at risk and “unsanctioned” payments would have to be repaid.
Furthermore, it was announced all current and future developments at St John’s Hospital have been “paused” in light of the HSE’s concerns around governance in the hospital.
Meanwhile, the hospital maintains it acted in “good faith to avoid the risk of losing the CEO” and that if her salary had not been increased, she would “earn less than the deputy CEO at St John’s”.
“The board acts in accordance with its Constitution and Revised Scheme of Arrangement. It is bound legally to do so. As a charitable trust it also has fiduciary standards set by the Charity Regulator,” board chairman Bishop Brendan Leahy has said.
