The Health Service Executive (HSE) has confirmed to Independent TD for Laois Offaly Carol Nolan that it has made 22 severance payments from 2018 to 2024 totalling €3,589,457.
The HSE says the amounts have been aggregated in order not to identify the amounts paid to any individual person.
It was reported recently however Dean Sullivan who was appointed six years ago as HSE Deputy Director General received a redundancy package of almost €400,000 in line with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform policy guidelines on such payments.
The information from the HSE was provided after the Independent TD asked Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to clarify the number of redundancies or so called ‘exit-packages’ that have been paid to staff or personnel at any level of seniority in his department, or in any agency or body under the aegis of his Department, from 2018 to date:
“While there is certainly an argument for privacy that I can understand, I still think it is important that the taxpaying public know who exactly received these payments and how much was involved in each case,” said Deputy Nolan.
“Indeed, only recently Minister Pascal Donohoe clearly stated that he was aware of the importance of transparency in these matters when asked about similar issues in the context of RTE executives. The HSE is also a public and statutory body and therefore I think similar levels of transparency should certainly apply to it,” Deputy Nolan concluded.