Minister for Health questioned over decision to re-employ hundreds of former workers at a cost of €14 million, writes MARTIN WALL
MINISTER FOR HEALTH James Reilly has criticised the large numbers of retired staff being taken back to work by the HSE on a short-term basis.
Last week, this newspaper reported that the HSE had paid out more than €14 million last year to rehire on a short-term basis hundreds of former staff who had retired on pensions.
Among those taken back by the HSE were 46 retired clerical personnel at a cost of just under €1 million.
The Minister was responding to a parliamentary question tabled last week by Labour Party TD Michael McCarthy.
Dr Reilly said that it was sometimes necessary for the HSE to re-engage retired staff on a short-term basis for a variety of reasons, primarily to ensure the provision of locum cover in front-line services.
He said that former staff members may also be engaged on a time-limited basis to sit on interview boards for staff appointments.
Dr Reilly said abatement provisions were applied to any situation where a pensioner was re-engaged, to ensure that the combination of his/her pension and salary did not exceed the remuneration payable to a serving staff member at the same level.
However, he said: “ I consider that, other than in the circumstances I have outlined, the re-engagement of retired management or administrative staff members on a consultancy basis is not appropriate and should be contemplated only in the most exceptional circumstances.”
He said it was a specific condition of the 2009 incentivised scheme for early retirement and 2010 voluntary early retirement and voluntary redundancy schemes in the HSE that persons who availed of these programmes were not eligible for re-employment in the public health sector.
“In the case of the 2010 schemes, this restriction was extended to include the wider public service as well as bodies funded wholly or mainly from public funds.
“In the case of the voluntary redundancy scheme, the re-employment restrictions apply for seven years, after which the approval of the Minister for Finance is required in any cases where re-employment is proposed.
“The restrictions also apply to re-employment on a contract for service basis in respect of all schemes.”
Overall the HSE rehired a total of 773 former staff on a short-term basis at a cost of €14.5 million. Nearly €10 million was paid out to retired medical and nursing staff.
The HSE figures show that 436 retired nursing personnel were taken back for short periods at a cost of more than €7.8 million.
A total of 45 retired medical staff were also rehired at a cost of €1.73 million.
Five retired dental personnel were brought back to work at a cost of more than €159,000.
More than 50 general support personnel were rehired by the HSE – a move which cost €1.05 million.
The cost of bringing back 31 retired health and social care professionals was just under €890,000.
The HSE has not commented in detail on the reasons why it had spent so much on bringing back retired staff.
A spokeswoman said that in some cases it was due to specialist expertise of the personnel concerned or to allow them to complete projects or to serve on interview panels.