{"id":149446,"date":"2025-10-28T11:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/149446\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T11:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T11:31:08","slug":"limerick-hospital-expansion-at-risk-over-chief-executive-pay-row-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/149446\/","title":{"rendered":"Limerick hospital expansion at risk over chief executive pay row \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The expansion of a hospital in Limerick is now at risk due to an escalating row between the Health Service Executive<\/a> and the board of the healthcare facility over the rate of pay to its chief executive.<\/p>\n

In August, The Irish Times revealed that the salary of Emer Martin, chief executive of St John\u2019s Hospital in Limerick, was increased to that of a higher pay band<\/a> – breaching the consolidated public pay scales.<\/p>\n

According to the HSE, the hospital is considered H2, under which chief executives can earn between \u20ac99,829 and \u20ac106,866. <\/p>\n

However, the board in 2023 agreed to increase Ms Martin\u2019s salary to that of a H3 hospital, which has a salary scale of between \u20ac119,571 and \u20ac140,747<\/p>\n

Tensions between the bodies have increased significantly in recent months, according to correspondence released under the Freedom of Information Act, with the HSE repeatedly demanding the hospital reduces Ms Martin\u2019s salary.<\/p>\n

In a letter on July 15th, Sandra Broderick, regional executive officer of HSE Midwest, told Bishop Brendan Leahy, chairman of the hospital board, that failure to correct Ms Martin\u2019s salary \u201cplaces both the board and the employee at significant risk, including implications for pension entitlements\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"EmerEmer Martin, chief executive of St John\u2019s Hospital in Limerick <\/p>\n

Ms Broderick followed up with another letter a month later on August 19th, stating it was \u201cregrettable\u201d she had not received a response, adding she \u201curgently\u201d required confirmation the correct pay was in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cFailure to comply may result in delayed progression to planned developments for St John\u2019s,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n

The hospital in recent years announced an expansion plan which will see 78 new beds, 42 of which will be additional capacity. The organisation has described the expansion as bringing \u201cthe hospital into the 21st century\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018We expect nothing other than full compliance\u2019: inside the furious row over a hospital boss\u2019s payOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Bishop Leahy responded to the HSE on August 22nd, stating it was not a \u201csimple issue of compliance or otherwise\u201d and was \u201cfar more complex than that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also regrettable that the matter is now linked with the progression of the planned capital development project. This project, which has been endorsed by the CEO of the HSE, is a completely separate matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should not be jeopardised or put in doubt as it has the potential to dramatically increase capacity in Limerick and across the region which is urgently needed for the people of the Mid-West.\u201d<\/p>\n

On August 29th, Ms Broderick told the hospital once again that pay must be brought back in line with public pay policy and that the hospital must seek reimbursement for \u201cunsanctioned overpayments\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Broderick added: \u201cAll future developments agreed or otherwise are now paused based on our concerns in respect of governance matters. We require assurance St John\u2019s Hospital are compliant with policy and regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The HSE was unwilling to clarify whether this statement meant it was now withholding funding for the project. St John\u2019s Hospital did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The expansion of a hospital in Limerick is now at risk due to an escalating row between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[18,135,475,2450,474,19,17,1844],"class_list":{"0":"post-149446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-health-service-executive-hse","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-limerick"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115451572102141619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}