Hospitals in breach of pay policy could face cuts, Gilmore warns

Hospitals who do not adhere to Government salary guidelines for senior managers could have their entire funding from the State reduced, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said.

Mr Gilmore said he expects all hospitals funded by the taxpayer to adhere to the salary caps.

Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics programme, Mr Gilmore said “all of the agencies that are funded by the State are expected to comply with those guidelines”.

“In many cases, these agencies are funded by the State, they get taxpayer’s money,” he added.

“There are instruments that are available to government if the agencies don’t comply, such as in cases where they are being funded, reducing their funding correspondingly.

“The Government determined that the pay guidelines that we have set across the public service will apply in the bodies that are funded by the State.”

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said today the revelation that money raised through fundraising was used to top up payments to executives at the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) was “not acceptable in any circumstances”.

Speaking in Japan, Mr Kenny said donations made by the public to the CRC should be spent on the services and facilities used by the children.

“When people give money for something like CRC they would expect it to be used for those who require it and who deserve it,” he said.

It emerged earlier this week that money raised by charitable company Friends and Supporters of the Remedial Clinic, which generates funds from a lottery, were used to top up the salaries of senior staff at the CRC.

“This is a difficult time of the year now for charities that are actually working really well in the interests of using the money that they raise for what is intended, and it’s no excuse to say that the money for the top-up for CRC was raised by another facility,” Mr Kenny added.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn called on members of the board of the CRC to resign in the wake of the revelations.

Lorraine Dempsey of the Special Needs Parents Association said parents felt “betrayed” to learn that fundraising money had gone towards staff remuneration at the CRC.

Mr Kenny is on an official visit to Japan this weekend as part of an effort to boost trade links in the agri-food sector.