Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The HSE representatives are welcome and I thank them for coming in again. I wish to address the big picture of the value of the allowances within the HSE and tease it out. According to the figures the HSE has shared with the committee, allowances are worth 2.6% of the total pay bill. We received equivalent figures from the Irish Prison Service relating to allowances as a percentage of the total wage bill and it provided a figure of 35%. For the Garda, allowances as a percentage of its total wage bill were 16%. Of any body that has come before the committee, the allowances in the HSE as a percentage of total pay are the lowest by some way. Why is that?