The salary of the chief executive of the group of public hospitals in the west and northwest will be reduced to the official prevailing rate for the post,

€136,000, under a new contractual arrangement to come into force in January, the HSE has said.

The West/North West Hospitals Group told staff last Friday that chief executive Bill Maher had accepted a new contract. He had, in recent weeks, been linked to the job of head of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland which had a salary of €210,000.

Mr Maher was seconded from his role as chief operations officer of St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin in January 2012 for a three-year period to run public hospitals in the west and northwest.

Under the new contract , Mr Maher will work for 20 per cent of his time with the HSE centrally. He will work with the HSE’s national director of acute hospitals “on strategic national issues relevant to hospital groups including the formation and capacity building of the hospital groups’ structures across the country”.

Special arrangement In late 2011 then minister for health James Reilly and

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin approved a special deal of €195,000 to facilitate Mr Maher's move from the St Vincent's Healthcare group to the west. This salary rate was later reduced under the Haddington Road agreement.

A spokesman for the HSE yesterday said that Mr Maher will be paid at his current rate of €152,000 – the equivalent of national director level II in the HSE pay scale – until the end of the year.

The spokesman said that under the new contract, which commences in January, he will receive the prevailing rate of €136,000 for regional hospital chief executive positions.

The HSE has been unable to fill several of the six regional chief executive posts on a full-time basis at the salary offered and there has been speculation that the health authority may seek approval to increase the remuneration level.