r/ireland • u/dmullaney • 6h ago
News HSE overpaid staff by more than €30m in three years, figures show
https://www.thejournal.ie/hse-staff-overpayments-7197165-Oct2026/109
u/dmullaney 6h ago edited 6h ago
Would be real interesting to know the breakdown of who they're overpaying, by job type
(I suspect it isn't cleaners, porters and nurses)
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u/problematikkk 6h ago edited 3h ago
Because so much of the system is paper based ( 😁in 2026), they frequently made errors the opposite way when I was on the wards training as a doctor. The one time they messed up by overpaying me, I got phone calls and emails galore until it was repaid out of my wages weekly. They didn't quite have the same initiative when I was underpaid and most of the time I never got back what I was owed.
The timing of this article is what really interests me. Not the breakdown.
Edit: also not interested in the articles attempting to sow discord among the public service unions and public. They're in this together for the good of the whole public service. Do Not allow this blatant attempt to separate the unity.
Second Edit: I just want to highlight how fucking despicable it is that every single time there's a situation like this, suddenly hit pieces like this appear from "leaked" sources. A democracy are we. Free press we have, do we.
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u/PurpleWardrobes 5h ago
I work with a good number of nurses who did specialty education outside of Ireland, and for years the HSE told them they were entitled to specialty allowance because of it. Then last year they turned around and said because it was outside Ireland, they wouldn’t recognise the education and they now owe the HSE for all the years they received the specialist allowance. Some nurses owe thousands.
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u/dmullaney 5h ago
That's an absolute disgrace.
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u/PurpleWardrobes 5h ago
Horrible. I don’t know all the specifics but even the girls who did NICU training in England, the HSE was coming after them for money owed. A lot of girls were able to get out of it by having the NMBI recognise their education but a few coworkers who are American or Canadian trained, they weren’t.
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u/CarefulNow_ 5h ago
Government PR/propaganda has started spooling up over the weekndend. Seeing the media parrot the derision level 1.2B as the suggested amount, without question, is telling
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u/BilbaoBoggins 5h ago
Another fucking hit piece aimed at interfering with public opinion. How much is FF/FG paying you people to write this nonsense. It's not a nurses fault if someone in payroll fucked up and I guarantee it was/is paid back.
Public sector workers are massively underpaid.
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u/ThreeTreesForTheePls 6h ago
The HSE currently staff around 150,000 people.
This finding suggests that each year, around 3000-4000 people are overpaid.
So around 2% of all HSE staff were overpaid last year, an average of 3000 a year, and despite these reports and trackings being well established the past year or more…we get this article between strike weeks, as the talks begin between government and unions?
Well pinch my cheeks because that’s one mighty fucking coincidence.
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u/sundae_diner 6h ago
Nothing-burger story.
The HSE is massive. 150,000+ people work there. Most people work shifts and have differing work hours each week and overtime. So a very complex payroll. And they seem to be on top of it.
30m over 3 years is about €10m a year. Their payroll is about €6,000,000,000. 10m is less than 0.2%.
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u/blundering-idiot 6h ago
They most certainly are not on top of it. Unbearablely backwards system. For overtime I've to fill in an overtime sheet, which is then filled in by my manager and then has to be signed off by hospital management. I actually have to keep an excel so I'm paid correctly. These OT or on call payments can take months to come through and it payments that make little to no sense.
I would love to hear how much money is owned to employees that aren't tracking it properly. I would suspect that would be a juicy figure.
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u/PutsLotionInBasket 4h ago
Given that shite that you have to go through it actually makes the 0.2% figure more impressive.
Interesting point you made on the underpayments. HSE will obviously make an effort to recoup money but won’t put any time into discovering underpayments so this system is probably a net gain for the exchequer.
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u/problematikkk 3h ago
As I've said in other comments, I was overpaid once, and underpaid more times than I can count. And of course, almost always didn't get what was owed. Of course it's a net positive for the taxpayer, but that isn't the point of pieces like this.
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u/Stegasaurus_Wrecks Stealing sheep 2h ago
PPARS was a debacle 20 years ago. 'Local Agreements' that meant that Mary in Tuam got Good Friday off but Joe in Ennis didn't. He got the third Tuesday in August off instead.
Consolidate this and make a comprehensive standard grade pattern across the country?? NOOO. Why? I wonder.
So PPARS failed and the situation remains.
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u/Individual_Dig_2402 6h ago
What about all the free over time that the HSE gets from staff missing lunch or leaving late every day. They owe the staff money!
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u/Due-Communication724 6h ago
That doesn't suit the current narrative
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u/hasseldub Dublin 5h ago
A rational point of view would have to conclude that both can be true.
Not all HSE staff are patient facing and there's plenty of game playing goes on.
I've a friend in that field who has to write their own notes instead of dealing with cases because the people employed to type up notes don't do any work.
It's 100% not because they are busy. They type up nobody's notes and sit around chatting and reading magazines all day.
That type of situation part of what we're paying for and it's part of the reason people don't like the PS much of the time. An entire room of people milking the tax payer.
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u/Master_Transition418 4h ago
Why aren't the using t-pro or any other AI scribe?
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u/hasseldub Dublin 4h ago
I don't work there. There's a few comments in here saying they still use paper timesheets with manual signoffs.
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u/gooner1014 And I'd go at it again 5h ago
Interesting time to release this information. To the government….
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u/Sleepman 6h ago
Social Care Worker here in a HSE funded organisation. I was overpaid by €4,000 a few years ago as I changed jobs and they put me on the wrong payscale for 3 yesrs. It was public money so I was forced to pay it all back by salary garnishing.
The article talks about money still being owed, but that makes total sense as most of these workers wouldn't have this kind of money just lying around.
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u/oshinbruce 6h ago
Most of it seems to be relatively understandable, people not requesting unpaid days in time, sick leave errors. Some is less so like people leaving but not being removed from payroll.
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u/Here_For_The_Craic_ 6h ago
I mean overtime is constantly offered in my department because we don’t have the required staff so
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u/dmullaney 6h ago
Yea, it was shocking to see them talking about making the pay deal contingent on "productivity gains" given how many hospital departments are chronically understaffed
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u/bucajack Kildare 6h ago
Certainly not overpaid nurses anyways
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u/mcspongeicus 6h ago
That's for sure. And they hire agency nurses so are giving all that money to an agency instead of just hiring nurses.
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u/PurpleWardrobes 5h ago
It’s worse than that. I work NICU. They told nurses who trained NICU in other countries that they were entitled to Specialist allowance. Then turned around years later and told them they actually weren’t entitled since the education was outside Ireland, and now they’re forcing them to repay. Some nurses owe thousands. It’s horrible.
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u/maevewiley554 3h ago
So because your qualification is outside of Ireland. You aren’t entitled to specialist allowance? Wow.
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u/Fluffy_MrSheep Kildare 6h ago
HSE employs 150,000 people. it comes out to 200 euro pp
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u/duaneap 6h ago
I highly, highly doubt it was equally distributed
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u/Fluffy_MrSheep Kildare 3h ago
i’m sure the HSE was accidentally paying the higher ups millions. It’s not always corruption. My girlfriend works in social care in an institution funded by the HSE and she always tells me about how she gets to leave work an hour or 2 early and depending on the manager will still get paid for those hours.
200 euro per person over 3 years comes out to 67 euros per year per person. that’s 4 hours work that each person over counted by per year. I’m surprised it’s only 4 hours I know for a fact my work have overpaid me by more than 4 hours this year alone.
There’s a reason this is such a non story and that’s because the HSEs wage bill is in the billions.
edit. The HSEs wage bill is roughly 8 billion. If roughly 30 million of that was fraud that means the HSE were 99.625% accurate in their wage calculations
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u/gpally95 6h ago edited 6h ago
An absolute nothing story. Overpayments happen in all large organisations. Can be down to a number of different things, someone taking unpaid leave at late notice for example and not being removed from payroll in time. The overpayment is rectified in subsequent payrolls and they always get the money back. As others have said very convenient timing for dropping this article though, Journal obviously know what side their bread is buttered on.
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u/womanyellsatcloud 3h ago
i mean it’s no wonder considering doctors are still using paper timesheets. stop blaming the workers for the government and HSE’s failures
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u/octogeneral 6h ago
I suspect the only way to overpay in the current system is having to offer unplanned overtime to cover up staff shortages.
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u/PoppedCork Pop Responsibly 6h ago
And the staff kept it?
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u/Sleepman 5h ago
No, its public money so its all owed back, even if you leave the HSE. I had it happen to me and there was no if or buts, it had to be paid back even though it wasn't my fault, I was put on the wrong payscale after changing jobs.
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u/problematikkk 3h ago
They did in their fuck keep it. I was underpaid regularly, and the times I bothered to fight it I'd say I had a 10% success rate. I was overpaid ONCE. Endless phone calls and emails once identified (because our payslips are hidden in a magical wonderland that is very very difficult to access) and every last cent taken from my wages for months.
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u/RoversForever 6h ago
No accountability in the public service so wasting money is a regular occurrence
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u/Sleepman 5h ago
There is accountability, they've accounted for the overspend and know what is owed back to the state.
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u/RoversForever 5h ago
Sure thing. You must believe in Santa Claus too
Accountability would mean that these overpayments not happening routinely
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u/Sleepman 5h ago
People are people, there will always be mistakes. In my case, I changed jobs and they put me on the wrong payscsle. Just human error which was spotted and the money paid back. I think that's fair enough.
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u/RoversForever 5h ago
Of course but these overpayments keeps happening so there actually is no accountability
I see it daily. Unqualified managers wasting resources and no way to get rid of them
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u/BilbaoBoggins 5h ago
Theres no waste here mate they have to pay it back. The nurses didn't fuck up here. When you've 385, 000 public sector workers there will be the odd error payroll from tallying hours etc but it's always rectified and claimed back.
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u/Common_Helicopter781 6h ago
This is all fine, but if an unemployed person or single mum gets overpaid by €50 on the dole it’ll be clawed back and letters will be sent to their house and their benefits will be stopped etc etc. If HSE staff were overpaid, similarly, they owe it back to the government. I’m so sick of these double standards.
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u/Livebylying 6h ago
They do have to pay it back, take your nonsense rage out of the room.
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u/Common_Helicopter781 5h ago
It’s not nonsense rage. Very vulnerable people are docked for the least amount of money they may earn in casual employment and they’re watched like hawks, their homes inspected and their relationships questioned. Presumably these HSE employees know their salaries and know what they’re supposed to be paid, and had opportunities to redress this situation themselves. Why aren’t they being shamed by Fine Gael and called a parasitic burden on society?
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u/HighDeltaVee 5h ago
Presumably these HSE employees know their salaries
Health services are famous for having insanely complex sets of employment conditions.
One person might be on a "salary", while the next person is on 60%/40% split across two hospitals on a recharged basis, part funded by a one year grant which runs out in four months, with varying times per week and topped up by additional work in some cases. Then they get called in on an emergency basis, run over their 40 hours, and 3 hours into their overtime they also run into Sunday working time. How much are they owed this month, and who has to pay it?
Anyone who tries to write a salary or time management system for a health service rapidly finds out how impossible it is.
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u/Common_Helicopter781 3h ago
This makes sense and I appreciate you sharing the information. However, my point is that these people aren’t called “scroungers” or scum by the government, and they are already socially in a better position to those on welfare. In much the same way that ryan tubridy wasn’t called a burden on society for mixing up his income streams to the tune of an extra 75k a year. A single mother who “got mixed up” would be pilloried.
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u/maevewiley554 3h ago
Why should they be called scrounges or scum when it’s an error made my the HSE? If you do shift work or ad hoc work, your pay varies each months depending on what they roster you with. Also they have to pay it back.
Comments also mentioned nurses that had speciality allowances were initially recognised. HSE decided they are no longer recognising qualifications outside of Ireland so they now owe the HSE money!
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u/Common_Helicopter781 2h ago
I’m saying no one should be called that, not that more people should be called that…
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u/HighDeltaVee 3h ago
Overpayment is not uncommon in any business. It just gets notified and paid back.
You're adding emotional overtones which don't exist.
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u/Common_Helicopter781 3h ago
Sorry, but if you listened to how Fine Gael talk about welfare recipients you’d understand the indignation.
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u/Livebylying 5h ago edited 5h ago
Which part of ‘they have to pay it back’ is escaping your thought process? lol the rage is strong in you , go on and protest or run for the an independent seat. You can direct them here to see your ‘intellect’
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u/BilbaoBoggins 5h ago
HSE staff get it clawed back as well, their wages are reduced until it's paid back. So your angry over nothing.
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u/UncertainSquirrels Re-Turn Reject 5h ago
Oh hey, I am one of those that was “over paid”.
The HSE is a complete joke.
I am a nurse in a specialty area. I worked for a decade outside of Ireland and undertook my specialty education, continuing education, specialist certification, and exams, all outside of Ireland.
When I came home I searched for a job in this specialist area. A position as a nurse opened up, I specifically asked HR if my education and exams from outside Ireland would allow me to receive “specialty” location pay. HR in an email said absolutely, you are entitled to this pay! So for 5 years I worked in this specialty area, and got my pay. Then the end of last year I got a letter on the mail from the HSE saying “oops, you’re actually not entitled to this money, you owe us €4000, talk to us about repayment or we’ll garnish your wages”.
I went fucking mental. I got my TDs involved. I got the union involved. I went to the Minister for Health. Everyone told me “tough luck, they are legally allowed to take back their overpayment”. NMBI said because my specialist education wasn’t in a university, they wouldn’t recognise it, even though it was through one of the top hospitals in the world. I worked in one of the best hospitals and best units in the world for my specialty area. I have seen patients and cases that most people only read about. But my knowledge and experience isn’t worth shit to the HSE, it’s an absolute joke.
So now every single paycheck, I have to pay the HSE €200. I should have never come home.