The Government has asked the independent body which assesses top-level pay in the public sector to carry out a special analysis of salary scales for senior health service managers later this year, writes Martin Wall.
The Government believes the review is necessary given the major reforms which have taken place in the sector with the abolition of the regional health boards and the establishment of a centralised Health Service Executive (HSE).
However, in the analysis to be carried out by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Service later this year, the pay rates for senior health service managers will be compared only with other posts in the public sector and not with the market generally.
However, such comparisons between senior health service staff and comparable groups in the private sector could be examined as part of a general review of top-level pay in the State sector which is scheduled to take place in 2007.
Around 100 senior health service managers will benefit from the 7.5 per cent increase in salary which was approved by the Government last week for all top-level public sector groups on foot of an earlier report of the review body.
Half of this increase will be paid from this month, with the remainder in January of next year.
In correspondence at the end of May, the Department of Finance told the review body that the Government believed it was the appropriate group to carry out a new analysis of pay rates for health service managers.
The review body has previously carried out reports on specific public sector groups, most recently on senior posts in third-level education.
In its letter to the review body, the Department of Finance stated that the replacement of the health boards with the HSE entailed "new structures and reallocation of staff, both at senior and other levels".
The senior staff in the old health board system below chief executive level were programme managers and directors of service.
The Department of Finance told the review body that under a deal with the trade union, Impact, last Christmas, the Government had agreed that the new analysis to be carried out this year would "look at the level of duties and responsibilities of the grade that will replace the position of programme manager and any other top management posts in the Health Service Executive".
Under this deal, any adjustments in pay for senior health service managers will be implemented from January 1st, 2005.
"The Government considered that the review body was the appropriate body to carry out this evaluation.
"Consequently, it has been asked to report thereon before the end of 2005," the Department of Finance wrote.
"This review is to price the jobs by reference to existing public service norms and not the market - that would have to await the full review.
"We will advise the review body shortly of the details of the grades to be examined," the department said.
Currently, salaries for top-level managers in the health service are in excess of €100,000 a year.
However, the new chief executive of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm, who is on a five-year contract, will be paid in excess of €300,000 a year.