A former key executive from Ryanair told the HSE that the travel and expenses bill for staff was too expensive at €1,050 per staff member and should be drastically reduced.
Michael Cawley, who was appointed to the health service board last year, said a €91.3 million annual travel and subsistence bill was “too high” and that “much more control needed to be exercised by management.”
Mr Cawley, a former deputy CEO of Ryanair, said the use of online conference platforms like Team and Zoom could be used to reduce the spend significantly.
In an email to fellow board members and HSE senior management, he wrote: “Preauthorisation of all travel by [management] together with a prohibition on foreign travel should yield considerable savings.”
The discussions took place earlier this year as the health service looked to cut costs with several areas of spending targeted for savings.
One of them was travel and subsistence with one senior official saying savings could be made by “applying existing rules rather than new rules or limits.”
Maurice Dillon, the National Lead for Palliative Care, wrote: “My sense is that they may not be applied consistently across disciplines, regions and line managers.
“For instance, if [an] employee uses their own vehicle where public transport could have been used, the amount of mileage should not exceed the cost of public transport.”
Another member of the HSE’s senior management team Patrick Lynch said the rule around “public transport before cars” needed to be reinforced.
Mr Lynch, National Director for Planning and Performance, also recommended a reduction in the use of taxis or hotel venues for meetings unless they had prior authorisation.
He said there could be a reduction in foreign travel for conferences, and that a new process might be needed for “exceptional approvals.”
Housing costs, the planning process, and the price of gas were the biggest downsides to doing business in Ireland according to the latest survey of multinationals by the IDA.
The 2024 client survey scored twenty different factors out of ten on Ireland’s competitiveness with the corporate tax regime again rating highest at 7.44.
However, housing for staff continues to be a major problem for companies doing business in Ireland, with satisfaction falling since the last survey in 2022.
Housing costs and availability both scored at 2.74 out of ten followed by the cost of gas supplies at 2.91.
Ireland’s planning process – which many companies consider slow and fraught with legal risk – scored at just 3.26 out of ten in the survey.
Other factors that had a ranking of below five out of ten were apprenticeships, power supply costs, and renewable power options.
On the plus side, Ireland’s famously generous corporate tax regime and the third level education system both scored well above seven, at 7.44 and 7.38, respectively.
Companies also listed broadband availability, labour force flexibility and air services availability as strong positives of doing business here.
An overview of the survey said: “The ranking of operational factors remains largely consistent to 2022. Satisfaction remains lowest for both housing costs and availability.
“There have been significant improvements in the evaluation of the availability and cost of broadband.”
Overall, companies were positive about Ireland with 54 percent saying growth prospects were “excellent” or “very good”.
The document was released by the IDA without issue under Freedom of Information laws for the first time.
The IDA had previously gone to the High Court to block release of a previous similar client survey
A confidential Revenue paper said a massive loophole in pensions law meant some people could wipe out all of their tax liability by transferring huge sums into a retirement saving fund.
The paper said the link between salary and pension had been completely “broken” and the system left open for large scale abuse by the wealthy.
The internal report, prepared by a Revenue official, said “a number of tax loopholes” had inadvertently been introduced because of the 2022 Finance Act.
It said there had always been room for individuals to increase personal wealth through clever use of pension schemes, but this had been super-charged by the loophole.
The paper said it allowed for “funding at an unlimited level” for family members or spouses artificially employed on low salaries and short contracts.
It said: “In effect, some self-employed professionals could wipe out their own tax liability on their professional income by a sufficiently large tax deductible PRSA [pension] contribution for their employed spouse.”
The Revenue report said the original plan had been to bring equality to different pension schemes and to encourage PRSA pension schemes that were easy to administer.
It said: “In summary, PRSAs were seen as good for the consumer, better regulated; good for Revenue – fewer schemes to approve and resources could be freed up and moved to compliance; good for the Pensions Authority – more resources moved to regulatory activities.”
However, the changes led to the abolition of benefit in kind charges on pension contributions and left them “without limit” and no link to salary or service.
The paper added: “[The legislation] severed this link and by doing so created a number of tax avoidance loopholes.”
It raised the prospect of how it could be abused through employment of family members, spouses, “if even for a short period.”
“For example, a family member put on the payroll on €10,000 per annum for a limited period (which may well lead to little or no taxation liability) could have a pension funded by a BIK free tax deductible PRSA contribution of say, €1m or even €2m,” the research said.
The research also said payments into pension pots could then be used over a period of several years to reduce tax liabilities.
It said: “A company could write [off] the entire pension contribution of €2 million against profits in the year the payment is made and carry forward the business losses for set off against profits in subsequent years.”
It said there was no requirement for any link between the pension contribution and the salary being paid to a person.
In some cases, that meant directors with other income sources, could pay themselves the minimum wage and funnel up to €2 million into a pension.
“Revenue is missing out on all the tax that would have been paid on the salaries paid over the years of service needed to accumulate these maximum pension funds,” the paper added.
It also explained how the link between length of service and accumulation of a retirement pot had been completely broken as well.
The paper said a spouse or family member could work for a short period of time – perhaps even a month – and accumulate a sizable pension.
It said: “In fact, an employer could employ a spouse for a month [or] year and fund for a maximum pension fund of €2 million and the spouse could leave the business after a month [or] year or whatever time period suited them.”
The report was prepared in the summer of 2023 and before a review of tax records showed some businesses were transferring over €500,000 per year into funds for the owner, their spouse, their children, or even their parents.
The Revenue Commissioners had withheld the report from release and only made it public following an appeal to the Information Commissioner under FOI laws.
Asked about the paper, a spokeswoman said that they had actively monitored the changes, and their analysis of trends and data identified a number of cases that gave rise to concerns.
They said these were shared with the Department of Finance and amendments in the Finance Act 2024 had addressed the problem.
A knife in a plastic bag was found stashed inside a courtroom while another person tried to smuggle a replica handgun into the criminal courts.
In another bizarre case, a member of the public tried to bring a “murder weapon” through a security screen saying they planned to hand it to gardaí as evidence.
A log of Courts Service incidents and accidents for 2024 also disclosed how another person tried to bring a “large wrench tool” through a scanner.
When they were told it would have to be left at the entrance gate, the person became “verbally abusive” and gardaí had to be called.
A note of the incident said: “Upon receiving the returned item, the [person] threatened to assault [security] operative with [it].
“A garda sergeant who was leaving the building overheard the threat and removed the [person] from the building.”
In April, “a small knife in a rigid plastic bag” was discovered in the Criminal Courts of Justice with an investigation taking place.
It was later said it could not be determined with any certainty who had brought the weapon into the building.
The log of incidents detailed the discovery last March of an Airsoft pistol inside a backpack from a person trying to get into the courts.
The replica weapon was confiscated with gardaí called and the owner later told the item would not be returned to them.
In another case last summer, the legal representative of a high security prisoner at Portlaoise was attacked by their own client.
The two of them were discussing the case when the lawyer “stumbled out of the holding cell having been physically assaulted.”
A new TD accused the Oireachtas of a “disregard for the dignity” of his position in a furious email over the state of an office offered to him in Leinster House.
Independent Ireland’s Ken O’Flynn promised to pursue “further steps as necessary” if his request for better accommodation was not facilitated.
In a lengthy message to Leinster House management, Mr O’Flynn wrote of being shown an office in an “unacceptable state” with paint cans in one corner, no chairs available and unwanted items left behind by the previous occupants.
He wrote: “The office had clearly not been maintained with the level of care that is expected in an environment representing elected officials.”
Mr O’Flynn said the room he was shown displayed a “lack of professionalism” and needed to be adequately furnished and promptly cleaned “to meet the standards befitting an elected member of this esteemed House.”
The email was one of dozens of requests from TDs and Senators seeking new offices, furniture, and repairs since the general election.
Among the issues raised were disappearing furniture, the need for a recliner in a room, bad smells, soiled carpets, and a broken chaise longue.
On his dealings with the Oireachtas, Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn said the lack of preparation for the incoming Dáil had been “astonishing”.
He said: “Would you be satisfied if left six weeks without a computer, and nine weeks without the allocation of an office?
“It shouldn’t have to be such a challenge. Whether you’re a public servant or working in private industry in facilities management – preparation is your job.”
The Department of Justice spent more than €1.8 million on deportation flights over a four-year period including at least €422,000 on business class flights for escort officers returning from operations.
The department said expenditure was sometimes necessary for executive seats when a deportation officer was immediately returning to Ireland from a long-haul flight without staying at the destination.
Records show that spending on deportation flights last year amounted to €1.09 million, of which around €262,000 covered business class travel.
For 2023, total expenditure on removal operations was roughly €463,000 with around a third of the total – or €161,000 – paid for business seats.
The rate of expenditure has been increasing as only €219,000 was spent in 2022 and €37,000 was paid for flights during 2021.
Deportation operations were heavily curtailed during the COVID-19 pandemic with only a small number of removals, usually where serious criminality was involved.
Figures provided under FOI show that there were a total of 156 deportation orders carried out by air last year.
This included 66 people from Georgia, 19 from South Africa, 15 from Albania, 14 from Brazil, 7 from Algeria and 7 from Nigeria.
The country’s best-known civil servant said a document that was leaked by former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had never ceased to be classified and confidential.
The Secretary-General of the Department of Health Robert Watt told the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) that the document was not supposed to be shared until it was formally published.
Mr Watt was last summer sent a lengthy list of questions by SIPO and said it was his view that the “degree of sensitivity or need for confidentiality” over the document never changed.
He said it was his understanding that an agreement to keep the document secret “would have been made explicit” during the negotiation process.
Mr Watt said that the plan was always for the document to be published but only when it was completely finalised.
An email from him said: “It is our understanding that it was agreed by all three parties that confidentiality of the draft text was to be maintained pending its finalisation.”
In April 2019, Mr Varadkar sent a draft copy of the agreement between government and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) to Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail, who was at the time the head of a rival GP group.
However, despite Mr Watt’s statement that the record never ceased to be confidential, SIPO again decided last December not to pursue a formal investigation into the former Taoiseach.
Correspondence between SIPO and the Departments of Health and the Taoiseach was originally withheld by the Standards Commission under FOI laws.
It was only released following an internal review and raises further questions over why the Standards Commission did not pursue the matter further.
In one question to the Department of Health, SIPO asked if the document was “declassified at any point?”
Mr Watt responded with a single word: “No.”
Asked if the high-level sensitivity of the document had ever changed, he replied: “No.”
Mr Watt said the reason for that was to maintain confidentiality so that it could undergo the necessary editorial control and finalisation to ensure only “accurate information” came into the public domain.
SIPO also asked if the contract had ever been requested by anybody else at the time from the Department of Health.
Mr Watt responded saying: “No records held by the department … indicate that any other individual or organisation sought the text.”
SIPO asked when the document had been provided to the former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
However, the Department of Health said they held no records on this and that their submissions system showed it was provided to the then Health Minister Simon Harris on April 17.
Text messages published by Village Magazine in 2020 show that the document was leaked by Mr Varadkar in mid-April of 2019.
Further records, including legal advice and other documents on why SIPO again decided last December not to pursue the matter, have all been withheld under FOI laws.
Asked about the documents that they did release, SIPO said they had no comment to make.
Five civil servants have retired with lump sum payments worth over €300,000 over the past three years.
The payments were made to officials with long service in the public sector to go along with an entitlement to a six-figure annual pension.
Details from the Department of the Public Expenditure show how one person last year received a lump sum of €358,490.
Their annual pension was calculated at €120,692, according to data released under Freedom of Information laws.
Another retiring civil servant got a golden handshake of €311,698 and is eligible for a per-year pension worth €114,340.
In 2023, two long-serving staff each received lump sums of €313,600. Both are entitled to an annual pension of €115,710, the department data showed.
There was also a single lump sum payment of €306,315 in 2022 which is payable alongside a yearly pension entitlement of €110,965.
In the period between 2020 and 2024, nine different people retired with per-annum pensions that were worth in excess of €100,000.
At least 89 former civil servants received lump sums worth between €200,000 and €300,000 during those five years.
The department figures detail just how significant a burden the pension bill for highly paid civil servants is proving for the taxpayer.
The top twenty lump sums for 2024 for example cost a combined €4.67 million.
Pensions for those twenty individuals will cost €1.5 million every year, although normal tax rates apply to these payments.
For lump sums, anything up to €200,000 is tax-free while anything between €200,000 and €500,000 is taxed at only the standard rate of twenty per cent according to Revenue rules.
An OPW report on a controversial €490,000 boundary wall project said the ESB had tried to charge them an extra €57,000 to divert an electrical cable that was already supposed to be fixed.
The summary report detailed how the original completion date for the project had gone from December 2022 until December 2024 and was dogged by delays and extra costs.
It was critical of the ESB saying the OPW had made payment of €54,000 in March 2023 for electrical works and understood that work on a live cable would start at once.
It did not begin until September though, which meant the actual reconstruction works on the unsafe wall at Lansdowne House in Dublin did not recommence until October.
However, it was quickly halted again with the report saying another section of live cable was discovered beneath the wall at the Workplace Relations Commission headquarters.
It said: “It should be noted that this remaining section of high voltage cable was outlined within the original … diversion application from October 2023 and should have been diverted in its entirety.”
The Office of Public Works said when contractors raised the new issue with the ESB, a further €57,000 was sought to rectify the problem.
The OPW refused to accept that fee and following negotiations decided they would hire an external contractor to carry out the job instead.
However, problems with the ESB continued according to the summary report, which was released under Freedom of Information laws.
A timeline from March 2024 said: “Further contact was made with ESB in relation to the completions of civils work to Lansdowne Park in an effort to reopen car parking spaces and remove the ongoing traffic management equipment requirement.”
By the end of May, these works still had not been completed and the OPW had to continue to pay Dublin City Council for occupying parking spaces on the road outside.
In June, the OPW were told the ESB would need to apply for a road permit and in July, they were told a new engineer was in charge.
The report said: “[The new ESB manager] advised an additional fee would be required to carry out these works and meeting on site to scope work would be needed.
“The contractor again reminded ESB of the ongoing delay and costs associated with the car parking restrictions and hiring of the traffic management equipment.”
Between August and November, further attempts were made to get the ESB to make good their part of the project “with no progress made.”
At the very end of November, the ESB finally returned to close over a draw pit and reinstate the road and footpaths.
A summary timeline from December said: “Traffic management equipment removed on Lansdowne Park with pathway and parking spaces made available for public use. The project is completed.”
In an outline of costs, the report said the original budget for the wall had been around €188,000 exclusive of VAT, and this part of it had actually come in slightly below estimate.
However, a further €54,000 was paid to the ESB for the diversion of the first part of the live electrical cable while Dublin City Council were paid €61,000 for loss of parking and paths.
Fixing the second part of the electrical cabling and the “subsequent delay” involved ended up with a further €95,491 on the bill.
That added another €211,000 to the overall cost (ex VAT), which when VAT was included brought the final overall bill to around €490,000.
Asked about the records, both the OPW and the ESB said they had no comment to make.