Over the past half-decade, the Health Service Executive (HSE) in the UK has spent upwards of €3.1 million on departure, redundancy, and exit compensations for staff. It has been confirmed by HSE that a total of 17 staff members were recipients of these payouts between 2019 and 2024. The exhaustive sum of these payouts was €3,128,921. The firm states that this figure is summarised rather than disaggregated to protect the confidentiality of individual payment sums.
This information was disclosed by HSE in response to a parliamentary enquiry made by Catherine Murphy, a TD from Kildare representing the Social Democrats. Recently, several TDs have demanded transparency from government departments with regards to severance payments to their employees or those within their domain. This comes in the wake of recent disclosures about hefty severance payments to executives at RTÉ, and the uncovering that a former deputy director general of the HSE received nearly €400,000 when he left earlier this year.
Furthermore, EirGrid – a state-owned corporation responsible for managing and improving the country’s electricity infrastructure – revealed that it shelled out over €400,000 in redundancy packages in the recent past. This was disseminated in response to a parliamentary question, stating that from 2019 to the present day, three severance payments have been made ranging between €100,000 and €200,000. The accumulated sum of these payments is €441,000, but individual details were withheld for privacy reasons.
In late February, the HSE revealed that a former employee, Dean Sullivan who was appointed as the deputy director general in 2017, left his role by “agreement and redundancy”, with a severance package of €388,983. However, the HSE added that Mr Sullivan would not receive the total figure on a net basis, without expanding on the particulars of this or the circumstances of his departure.
The HSE confirmed that Mr Sullivan’s departure from the health service was coordinated through a mediation procedure. Mr Sullivan had been part of the HSE since mid-2017, originally he was hired as the Deputy Director General- Chief Strategy and Planning Officer for a five year duration. In mid-2022, his title was changed to Chief Strategy Officer of HSE.
Both the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister for Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohoe, have publicly voiced their support for the agreement struck between the HSE and Mr Sullivan.
The Department for Public Expenditure and Reform explains that the sum involved comprises a legal settlement sum meant for addressing potential legal and financial risks as well as a redundancy or severance.
Mr Donohoe assured that Mr Sullivan’s exit agreement was in accordance with the Government’s policy. He stated, “The redundancy component is completely aligned with our policy concerning redundancy programmes.”
Mr. Donohoe further added that a portion of the agreement was influenced by a legal procedure and a mediation spearheaded by a senior counsel.