One consultant doctor working for HSE earned more than €900,000 last year, report shows

A single hospital consultant in Ireland commanded earnings exceeding €900,000 from the Health Service Executive (HSE) last year, according to the group's annual report. This substantial remuneration package included over €616,000 specifically for additional work, such as overtime, fees, and session payments.

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The HSE acknowledges that delays in submission of patient bills to private insurers can increase the risk that the invoices will not be paid and therefore may have to written off as a bad debt

The report revealed that 11 employees, all medical consultants, each received more than €500,000 in 2025. The collective earnings of the top 10 highest earners amounted to €6.8 million for the year. Notably, four of these top earners were employed at a single acute hospital. This figure represents a significant increase from 2024, when one individual earned between €690,000 and €700,000.

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The HSE estimated that the level of claims that were forfeit and therefore provided for write off in 2025 was in the order of €3.4 million, which accounts for circa 6 per cent of net patient debtors.

Beyond consultant salaries, the HSE report detailed financial challenges related to insurance claims. Approximately €27 million in health insurance claims had not been submitted to insurers for payment, pending internal action or sign-off. The report indicated that claims valued at around €3.4 million were ultimately written off as bad debt due to submission delays, which the HSE acknowledged increases the risk of non-payment.

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An internal investigation reviewed the relevant transactions and found no evidence of wrongdoing, concluding that training and supervisory weaknesses were the cause

Further financial write-offs were noted concerning Covid-19 pandemic supplies. Expenditure on vaccines totaling €8.4 million was written off because the stock had expired or was no longer clinically appropriate. Additionally, the HSE incurred about €1.5 million in 2025 for the storage and subsequent environmentally safe destruction of outdated personal protective equipment (PPE).

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This charge of €8.4 million is in relation to Covid-19 stocks that have expired, ie they have either passed the manufacturers expiry date or are deemed no longer clinically appropriate and are therefore no longer suitable for administration.