The Southern Health Board has defended its decision to create a new management post at a time when spending on patient services must remain at last year's levels.
The new post of director of support services comes with a salary of over €70,000. It has been advertised on the health board's internal communications system and interviews are due to be held next week.
The board's chief executive, Mr Seán Hurley, told The Irish Times yesterday that the post was "vital" and he stood over the decision to seek an internal candidate to fill it.
"It is a new post, but this is a post that I got approval from the Department of Health for two years ago. We advertised publicly for it last year but did not find a suitable candidate. This time around I'm going to fill it internally in an acting capacity for 12 months," he said. "The post will be filled within our overall ceiling and our overall budget."
The Southern Health Board is the largest in the State, serving a population of more than 580,000 people. It has a budget of €935 million this year. Mr Hurley warned in January that it was "facing a new economic reality where the rate of growth in healthcare spending is being reduced".
He said the board would only be able to deliver "more or less" the same level of services as were approved in 2002.
Mr Hurley said yesterday it had been decided to put in place new management structures following a review two years ago. The new post was created in this context.
Responsibilities of the job will include leading and managing the heads of the human resources, information technology, materials management, consumer relations and risk-management departments.
"I am gearing up for the Brennan report, which talks a lot about new financial systems and information technology. I want somebody at a senior level who will drive that change," he said.
The new recruit would support mangers to manage their budgets, he added.
Meanwhile, the Irish Medical Organisation has expressed concern about plans by three health boards to save money by not filling three consultant posts which soon fall vacant.
One health board was refusing to provide cover for a public health doctor going on maternity leave, the IMO's industrial relations director Mr Fintan Hourihan said.
The others vacancies were being created by a consultant anaesthetist moving to another job and a locum psychiatrist with over three years' service who had been told his contract would not be renewed this year.
"I am not naming the health boards at this stage to give them an opportunity to come to their senses, but I would be advising all doctors to notify us of any decisions made that are cutbacks-related," he said.