The top salary of between €970,000 and €980,000 is believed to have been paid to a hospital consultant and included back money and allowances. Another consultant earned between €710,001 and €720,000.
The HSE’s annual report also showed that former chief executive Paul Reid, who stepped down last December, earned €399,182. This comprised basic pay of €339,549, allowances of €45,838 and benefit in kind of €13,795. The report said the benefit in kind amount related to the provision of a car.
Mr Reid was not a member of the HSE pension scheme, and no employer pension contributions were made by the HSE on his behalf.
As a consequence, he received an equivalent pension allowance, the report added. He received €4,420 in expenses.
Chief financial officer Stephen Mulvany, who is on a salary of around €190,000, received a €90,000 allowance for acting as interim chief executive until Bernard Gloster took over in March.
The numbers of staff earning more than €100,000 at the HSE increased by 808 from 3,982 to 4,790 last year.
The report showed 352 staff earned between €250,000 and €500,000 and 2,594 workers earned between €100,000 and €150,000.
It also revealed that €94.4m worth of obsolete Covid-19 vaccines had to be dumped.
Many of these were stocks that were out of date at the end of December.
They also included jabs that are due to be out of date soon or are no longer considered to have usefulness in the vaccination programme.
The €94.4m of dumped vaccines included €33.7m in expired stock. These doses had passed the manufacturer’s expiry date and were no longer suitable for administration; €60.7m was included in the overall sum for stock that is due to expire.
Of this, there was a provision of €47.9m for original formulation vaccine stocks – held in reserve last year as a contingency in the event of an emergency that did not arise – that were due to expire in the first quarter of this year and are no longer considered be suitable.
This is because the newer bivalent vaccines can now be used for primary dose vaccination.
Another €12.8m was provided for due to adapted vaccines that are nearing expiration.
These specific vaccines were procured “at risk” before authorisation, as Ireland’s share of the joint-EU procurement arrangements operated by the European Commission on behalf of the 27 member states.
Covid continued to take a heavy financial toll on the HSE last year, with the bill for Personal Protection Equipment totalling €146m.
Other Covid-related costs included the roll out of the vaccination programme at €425m and the pandemic recognition payment to health workers, which reached €208m last year.
The HSE ended up €185.16m in the red.
