My Department funded the larger voluntary providers of hospital and disability services on behalf of the health boards up to 1999. When the HSE was established in 2005, it assumed responsibility for the funding of those agencies which provide services under Section 38 of the 2004 Health Act and for ensuring the application of public pay policy in those agencies. As part of the HSE Internal Audit Directorate's review of remuneration paid to senior managers in Section 38 agencies, a search for relevant papers held in my Department was carried out in 2012. The files indicated that, historically, allowances/additional payments were approved from time to time in individual cases to reflect additional workloads, responsibilities or to bring remuneration into line with equivalent posts elsewhere in the health service.
While requests for additional allowances were received from a range of agencies, only three sanction letters, relating to the approval of allowances in Beaumont Hospital and the Mater Hospital, were located which may be relevant to the Deputy's query. I have arranged for copies of these to be forwarded directly to the Deputy, together with the Department's response to the HSE. I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy regarding their own records.
