Public wants huge cut in HSE chief's pay

A majority of the public believes that the HSE CEO should only be paid €150,000 or less per annum, according to irishhealth.com's latest viewers' poll.

This is less than one-third of what Prof Brendan Drumm currently earns as head of the HSE. Forty-two per cent of respondents to our latest poll said the HSE CEO shoudl get less than €150,000 per annum.

Fifty-two per cent of those polled believe the HSE CEO should get between €150,000 and €300,000 per annum. Prof Brendan Drumm's total current remuneration is reported to be around €500,000.

The remuneration of Prof Drumm has been almost constantly under the public spotlight since he took over as head of the HSE in August 2005.

Recently, there was major controversy when it was revealed that Prof Drumm was to receive a bonus of €70,000 for his performance as CEO in 2007, despite the major failings in the health service that became apparent that year.

Prof Drumm has pointed out that he could earn a similar amount to his HSE pay as a practising hospital consultant, including private practice payments.

On his own remuneration and the negative comments about it, he told irishhealth.com last year: “I think this is incredible considering that most people in the health service in clinical posts at my level, in fact a very significant amount of them, earn far more than me, between their public and private practice.”

Last year, other senior staff in the HSE received bonuses totalling €1.4 million in relation to the work they carried out in 2007. The payment of bonuses in the HSE has since been suspended by the Government.

We asked our registered readers, in view of the recent controversy about Prof Drumm's remuneration, how much they thought the HSE CEO should be paid.

Forty two per cent of respondents said they felt the CEO should be paid under €150,000, while 36% said they thought the job should attract remuneration of between €150,000 and €200,000.

Seventeen per cent said they thought the CEO should be paid between €200,000 and €300,000. Only 3% said €300,000 to €400,000 while only 2% said €400,000 to €500,000, which is the current level of Prof Drumm's remuneration.

Around 350 viewers took part in the poll.

Prof Drumm's successor, when he or she takes over next year, is likely to be on less pay than Prof Drumm, following a 2008 salary review for this level of post.

In addition, many posts in the public service a likely to have their pay reduced in a new "downward benchmarking" process.

Among the comments made by those who voted in our poll were:

"It is laughable that at this point in the poll a total of 76% believe that the salary should be less than €200k and 48% think it should be less than €150k. This is a post in charge of an organisation with 100,000 employees and approx 20 billion euro budget. In addition, as a consultant within the system Drumm would earn approx €240k on a public-only contract."

"Prof Drumm is not worth the what he is being paid.  No man or woman should be paid the salary he is getting, not to mind the bonuses, The bulk of the money spent on health is spent at the top rung of the ladder right down to admin at the hospitals and health centres in the country, No wonder we are in trouble and the Government want to claw back at the disabled and unemployed."

Click here to view the poll results and comments, as well as results of previous polls.

[Posted: Tue 27/10/2009]