One senior clinical manager in the Health Service Executive last year earned almost €1 million, according to the HSE’s 2017 annual accounts.

The senior clinical manager’s pay of €970,000-€980,000 in 2017 incorporates backdated arrears of pay since 2010, including basic pay and overtime, night duty, weekend and on-call allowances.

A note in the HSE accounts states the manager’s actual employee benefits in 2017 without any arrears would have put the manager in the pay band of €210,000-€220,000.

The pay earned by the senior clinical manager was almost €500,000 more than the next top earner, who received €500,000-€510,000.

Last year a further 12 staff members received pay of €300,000-€500,000.

In total 2,554 staff members at the HSE received pay over €100,000 last year – compared with 2,243 in 2016, an increase of 311.

The majority of the high earners at the HSE would be medical consultants – although no breakdown is provided in the accounts between consultants and others.

The figures show 25 staff members received pay of €250,000-€300,000; 250 were in receipt of salaries of €200,000-€250,000; 1,108 were getting paid €150,000-€200,000 and 1,157 got €100,000-€150,000. The HSE’s total pay bill last year increased by 4.8 per cent, from €5.1 billion to €5.35 billion.

Numbers employed

During 2017 numbers employed by the HSE increased by 3,800, going from 110,258 to 114,058.

Pay to key management personnel at the HSE – made up of the directorate – last year totalled €1.152 million, down from the €1.23 million paid out in 2016. The accounts also show the spend on lump-sum pension payments to those retiring last year totalled €115.64 million, a 6.7 per cent rise on the €108.3 million paid out in 2016.

The spend on agency staff increased 8.5 per cent, from €277.33 million to €301 million, while the HSE’s overtime bill increased 10 per cent, from €148.9 million to €164 million.

The accounts also show the HSE’s spend on legal and professional fees increased last year from €60 million to €85 million.

The State Claims Agency manages claims against the HSE for damages, and the accounts show that the HSE’s estimated liability for active claims rose during the year by €432 million, from €1.922 billion at the end of 2016 to €2.354 billion at the end of last December.