Taoiseach Enda Kenny has criticised the payment of top-up allowances to senior hospital executives.

“Non-exchequer payments cannot be made to chief executives to put them in breach of agreed public pay policy,’’ he said.

Mr Kenny said there could not be a situation where chief executives had their public pay service agreements breached by unauthorised payments. He added that in the HSE-run hospitals it was very clear what people were paid but voluntary hospitals operated in a quasi-independent way.

He said that those down the line in the health service, who had taken serious structural change, were not going to be treated differently then chief executives.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said a very disturbing revelation had emerged that over one-quarter of the State's health and disability agencies were in breach of public pay policies. "Given that it is only a few months from the Haddington Road agreement, it really does beggar belief that these allowances are being sustained and hidden under the carpet,'' he added.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the payments were being made while children with health issues were waiting over a year to see specialists.

Independent TD Joan Collins said it seemed that those living "Celtic Tiger lifestyles'' had continued to retain them while those on the frontline had to take massive cuts in their incomes. She added that there were political appointees on the boards of the hospitals.