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THE TOTAL COST of allowances paid to staff in the health sector was over €166 million in 2011, according to figures put before the Public Accounts Committee this afternoon.
Appearing before the Committee, Director General of the HSE Tony O’Brien said this amounted to 2.61 per cent of the total HSE pay bill. Of the total amount, €86.9 million was spent on allowances paid to nursing staff with €36.3 million paid to care and support staff and €29.3 million paid to medical or dental staff.
He said an estimated total of 36,887 staff in the HSE are in receipt of an allowance with 41 allowances identified in total. Some 31 of these are legacy allowances predating the year 2000 and some date back as far as the 1970s.
The HSE Director General said many of these allowances were introduced when there was a severe lack of nurses in Ireland or to recognise the nursing staff working in specialised areas.
Barry O’Brien, National Director of HR at the HSE said the majority of allowances are paid to frontline service provision staff.
Employment cut
Barry O’Brien said it has been clearly indicated that the department may be given a target reduction of over 6,000 staff by the end of 2014.
Tony O’Brien said the HSE is in the process of consultation with the main union concerned to ensure targets are consistent with the Croke Park Agreement.
It was revealed that out sourcing-payroll was one of the options being considered as Barry O’Brien said it would be better to move current staff to the frontline where they are needed.
He said the executive is a long ways into the review and he now expects it to be “concluded very shortly”.
Both Fine Gael TD Simon Harris and Sinn Féin TD Mary Lou McDonald queried allowances that are paid to high earning staff with McDonald saying from the point of view of the tax payers some of the consultants in receipt of allowances “earn very,very high salaries”.
The HSE representatives agreed to supply more detailed figures to the committee with a breakdown of allowances and pay grades.
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Has to include oil & gas or else they’re peeing against the wind. Make it meaningful & hit him where it hurts
Half a billion euro to arm Ukraine but 35 billion to Putin??? Yeah, that’ll sort it….
We need to provide Ukraine with the means to not only defend itself but push the invader completely out of its territory. That includes tanks, advanced anti-air missiles, training for Ukrainian pilots for western jet fighters and supply of F-16′s to let them reclaim their skies.
This war will be a litmus test for how far Putin can test the rest of Europe and we need to make sure Ukraine has the ability to make the war politically, tactially and economically unviable for Putin.
@Seán Ó Briain: do u hear yourself talking f n Sxite ..yeah yeah let’s give them more guns more bombs more planes …you sound like that fn guy riding the atomic bomb down to ground zero .they would have been better off putting down there guns and doing nothing did never hear of Gandi and his teachings
@Michael Nolan: So once the Russians have already invaded your answer is to bend over?
I can just imagine you welcoming your new overlords while snitching on your neighbours.
@Seán Ó Briain: takes several years to train to fly an F-16. It’s more complicated than a bike.
@Will: well let’s see eh I’d rather be alive
Have a look at this
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMLXUTKwA/
@Sean Whelan: 100% right.
I think it’s time for a general boycott on German goods, until they stop dragging their feet. Germany has a big responsibility for allowing this to happen.
- They blocked countries from supplying Ukraine with weapons
- They blocked the SWIFT ban (And watered it down)
- They blocked tougher sanctions
- They continue to block sanctions on energy imports.
Germany is Russia’s most powerful political ally in the EU.
Is this a discussion on the sixth round of sanctions on Russia or Europe?
It looks like it is not doing much to stop war on Ukraine and inflicting a lot of financial pain for all the EU countries…
Russian Oil Continues To Flow To India And China
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Russian-Oil-Continues-To-Flow-To-India-And-China.html
have your say