There was strong reaction to the approval of Prof Drumm’s €70,000 bonus
THERE WAS a considerable number of e-mail responses to the question posed in last week’s Healthplus: Should Prof Brendan Drumm, the chief executive of the Health Service Executive, have claimed his €70,000 bonus for work done in 2007?
The overwhelming reaction was that he should not. One e-mailer, a medical consultant, said: “An alternative to show he cares is to donate it to a children’s charity or Crumlin Children’s Hospital who could employ two nurses with this bonus.”
Another said: “Under no circumstances should Dr Drumm get a €70,000 bonus. He is being paid more than enough as it is.”
Below is a snapshot of the responses received.
In essence, I do not agree that Prof Brendan Drumm should get his 2007 bonus. In principle he is entitled to it, since it pertains to a period when such contracts existed.
However, as a HSE employee, whose allowances and conditions of employment which were negotiated over many years have been cut by one-third unilaterally, peremptorily and without consultation (similarly with the pension levy), I find that this episode merely reinforces the perception that there is no mechanism to ensure that privation is endured by all from top to bottom in these difficult times.
My single biggest objection to the widespread attack by many economists and some sections of the media on the public sector is just the mere lack of that principle of equal pain.
Day after day, economists and commentators point to the loss of jobs in the private sector as evidence that it is suffering hugely in comparison to the public domain.
This is a fact that cannot be denied – that is, the loss of jobs – but the burden of putting this country back on its feet is not being shared from top to bottom within the private sector and, therefore, a disproportionate contribution is being sought from us, the public sector, to rectify a situation we did not create.
Hence, in the issue of payment of the bonus to Prof Drumm, the principle of equity of hardship should apply over the principle of entitlement.
Damian Price
– by e-mail
I do not think Prof Drumm should be paid the 2007 bonus.
Martin Thorp
– by e-mail
Absolutely NOT! It makes me incredibly mad to think that this man can actually expect to receive a bonus for such a mismanaged and shambolic excuse for a health service.
I would dearly love to have just five minutes with him to express my disgust and ask him why does he think he deserves such a bonus, when on the previous page of your supplement, the article talks about many issues in regard to the health service but the one that struck me the most was the fact that people have to beg . . . I am appalled.
Dara McDonald
– by e-mail
I do not think Prof Drumm should be awarded a bonus, never mind claim it.
Marion O Connor
– by e-mail
If I am really pleased I tip the waiter in the restaurant since I surmise that he/she is worse off than myself and has performed what many consider a menial task with care, attention to detail and a degree of graciousness. But bonus equals tip (let’s call a spade a spade) for privileged earners and, in my way of thinking, it stinks to high heaven. To me it is a mark of the vulgarity to which our society has descended. Do I tip my surgeon, doctor, solicitor? Do we tip our President, Taoiseach, Bishop, parson, PP or teacher?
“When you have done all you have been told to do [and been paid well for it], say “We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty.” ( Lk.17:9).
Walter Rockett
– by e-mail