HSE Chief Executive Bernard Gloster has notified top managers that there is to be a freeze on filling certain new and replacement manager posts due to cost overruns.
In a memo to senior staff, Mr Gloster said these are temporary measures to bring about greater controls to ensure alignment with the staffing levels set in the 2023 National Service Plan.
The freeze will apply to all clerical and administration grades from Grade 3 and upwards.
In the memo to senior staff, Mr Gloster said that since December 2019, there had been a net growth in these manager posts by over 31% or 5,960 staff.
In response to the development, the trade union Fórsa said it would resume suspended industrial action from tomorrow.
It had initiated the action due to a recruitment pause in May on Grade 7 posts and above.
Fórsa said it was unacceptable that its members working across management and administration grades in the HSE, and elsewhere in the health system, were being targeted for a recruitment moratorium.
It said members would not undertake tasks or responsibilities associated with any vacant post from tomorrow.
Members will also not carry out duties of a higher grade and will boycott discussions on health region reforms.
Mr Gloster said the action could be highly disruptive to the management system but there would be less impact on front line services.
Staff earnings
Mr Gloster told the the Public Accounts Committee today that the HSE is facing an estimated budget overrun this year of €1.5 billion.
He said that the growth in management positions from 2019 to 2022 was the "highest percentage growth staff grade in the HSE".
He added: "And this year, an additional 1,400 jobs were given to that grade. And we've already exceeded that 1,400 by a couple of hundred that we can't afford.
"And we've also management administration in on agency (staff)."
He also told the Committee that he does not believe a situation can continue where eight HSE staff earn above €500,000, in one case reaching above €700,000 and the highest above €900,000.
These relate to consultant specific specialities and mainly call-outs.
Mr Gloster said that currently a HSE employer is defined as a high earner if they are earning above €300,000, but this will require adjustment with the new consultant contract.
He said that improvements are required regarding the control environment and inconsistency of approach that results in some of the high earnings.
HSE budget
The Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy said the HSE had a deficit of €185 million last year, which was carried over into this year's Budget.
He said the total HSE budget was over €24.5 billion.
The HSE told the Public Accounts Committee that last year it wrote off €33 million for out-of-date Covid-19 vaccines, plus €60 million for vaccines with no further use due to changes in health guidance and excess of supply over demand.
The continued storage cost of obsolescent PPE was €1.7 million last year.
The Oireachtas Health Committee is discussing the HSE's financial accounts for last year.
Cyber-security
An independent review of cyber-security at the HSE has shown "a satisfactory rate of increase", Mr Gloster said, and pointed to "significant improvement" in the agency's systems.
"We had an external updated rating done recently, in terms of what is referred to as our 'maturity rating'," he told the PAC.
"And that has increased in accordance with the actual plan since the cyber attack, and has increased to what would be considered a satisfactory rate of increase.
"So, on the security side, certainly significant improvement - but I would never be complacent. The best IT systems in the world have been hit in the last 24 months."
