THE HEALTH Service Executive chief has said a huge strategic investment was required in management in the health service.

Chief executive Cathal Magee told the Institute of Public Administration yesterday that this was one of the biggest challenges facing the organisation as “we do not grow management capabilities across the system easily”.

Mr Magee said the HSE has “an administrative culture rather than a management culture. He said that while efficient and effective administration was critical, it was not management.

There was not sufficient distinction in grading structures and career streams to separate administration from management in the health service, he said

Mr Magee also said that the return on investment in early retirement for staff in the health service or in the broader public service was not as significant as in similar cases in the private sector as pension costs had to be met from current expenditure rather than from a specific pension fund.

He said that net savings from early retirements in the health service were only about one-third per year after pension costs.