HSE €130m payroll system to be replaced with out-sourcing
A HSE payroll system which ran hugely over-budget and eventually cost €130 million is to be replaced through outsourcing, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
The PPARS system was never fully rolled out and is just one of eight payroll systems used in the health services, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee was told.
Tony O’Brien, HSE director general designate, said the Health Service Executive (HSE) was “not committed” to keeping payroll services in house. The problem at present was the multiplicity of systems rather than the inadequacy of any one of them. However, PPARS was not a realistic option at this time.
The HSE needed to focus on where to best spend resources in the context of falling staff numbers, said human resources director Barry O’Brien. Several hundred people people worked in payroll and these could be redeployed to frontline services if the service was outsourced.
The outsourcing of payroll operations will proceed by way of a tender process, according to a circular sent to affected staff late last month and seen by The Irish Times.
In the circular, Liam Woods, HSE national finance director, said there would be a formal engagement process with the Impact trade union in accordance with the Croke Park agreement before the change takes place. The HSE is working on a business plan which requires the agreement of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
Sinn Féin health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD said the HSE was clearly acting under the direction of Minister for Health James Reilly.
“This information will come as no surprise to those of us who have long believed that Dr Reilly’s so-called reform agenda is based on an American rather than a European model, with increased private-sector involvement in all aspects of the healthcare infrastructure and services provision.”
The proposal is being resisted by Impact staff, who met this week to plan a campaign of resistance.
At the committee Mr O’Brien said over €166 million a year was paid in allowances to the HSE’s 104,000 staff, equivalent to 2.61 per cent of the total pay bill.
This included almost €87 million paid to nurses, €36 million for care and support staff, and €29 million paid to medical and dental staff, according to Mr O’Brien.
Almost 37,000 HSE staff receive an allowance, he told the committee.
Industrial unrest
Some 41 different allowances are paid, 12 of them for nurses. Mr O’Brien said many of these stemmed from industrial unrest among nurses in the 1990s.
Under Labour Court recommendations, allowances were granted to nurses with specialist skills or working in arduous areas.
He described 31 of the payments as legacy allowances from the last century.
Mr O’Brien said there was concern about high spending on acting-up allowances, which cost €17.7 million last year.
As a 24-hour, seven-day service it was essential to have flexibility to provide cover at short notice to ensure patient safety and minimise medical risk.
He said negotiations with staff had begun with the aim of restricting the payment of acting-up allowances to periods over 84 days.
It was expected these talks would end soon, and he said a new arrangement would be implemented which would facilitate considerable savings to the exchequer.
7-Up with antioxidants to be taken off the market ‘company says lawsuit not a factor’
7-Up with antioxidants will soon be off the market, after an advocacy group accused the drink maker of making misleading health claims.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group said Thursday its 7-Up varieties that tout antioxidants will be off the market by early 2013. The company, based in Plano, Texas, said the decision to reformulate the drinks was not related to the lawsuit. It said the drinks were being taken off the market for consistency across its brands.
The company commented about the decision after an advocacy group on Thursday filed a lawsuit saying the drink’s claims are misleading because they give the impression that the antioxidants come from fruit rather than added vitamin E. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, which advocates for food safety and nutrition, also noted that the Food and Drug Administration prohibits companies from fortifying candies and soft drinks with nutrients.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in California on behalf of a California man who bought the drinks but says he didn’t know the antioxidants didn’t come from juices.
7-Up Cherry Antioxidant, Mixed Berry Antioxidant, and Pomegranate Antioxidant were launched in 2009. Despite the pictures of cherries, blackberries, cranberries, raspberries and pomegranates on various 7-Up labels, the drinks do not contain any fruit or juice.
“It’s an implied claim of healthfulness without any evidence,” says Mike Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Although there are many packaged foods that tout antioxidants, Jacobson said this was a particularly egregious example because regulations prohibit companies from fortifying junk foods.
Even if added antioxidants provided any benefit, Jacobson noted that people “shouldn’t be getting them from a soda.”
In a statement issued Thursday, Dr Pepper said its 7-Up Cherry is a “cherry-flavored soda that does not contain juice … and it says so right on the label.” The company says it had decided to reformulate the 7-Up drinks in 2011 and had met with the Center for Science in the Public Interest over the matter this summer.
The FDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It’s not the first time a soft drink maker has run into trouble for nutritional claims. In 2008, the FDA sent The Coca-Cola Co. a warning letter for placing inappropriate nutritional claims on its Diet Coke Plus soft drink. The agency had objected to the product’s labeling, which described the drink as “Diet Coke with Vitamins and Minerals.” The FDA said at the time that it is inappropriate to add extra nutrients to “snack foods such as carbonated beverages.”
A Coca-Cola representative said the drink was taken off the market in 2010 because it wasn’t performing well.
In 2009 the Center for Science in the Public Interest also sued Coca-Cola for what it said were deceptive claims about its Vitaminwater. The group said Coca-Cola was selling what it said is basically sugar water by claiming it has vitamins that boost immunity and reduce the risk of disease. That case is still pending, according to Steve Gardner, litigation director for the center.
SMEs account for 99% of Irish businesses
SMEs accounted for almost all businesses in the Republic in 2010 but generated just half of turnover, according to a new analysis from the Central Statistics Office.
The Business in Ireland 2010 study also found that SMEs, which represented 99.8 per cent of enterprises, accounted for 46.8 per cent of gross value added, a key measure of business income.
The CSO defines an SME as a business employing fewer than 250 people. Numbers employed in SMEs fell by almost one-fifth to 854,500 between 2006 and 2010, with 115,000 job losses in construction having the biggest impact by far. The CSO found that 81 per cent of turnover in construction in 2010 came from SMEs, which provided 95.3 per cent of employment in the sector.
A breakdown of the data shows that the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector was by far the most profitable in 2010, recording a 31.8 per cent operating surplus.
The next most profitable was real estate with a 24 per cent surplus, while the motor trade was the least profitable with a 2 per cent surplus. Construction had a surplus of 8.4 per cent.
Average profitability was a 14.5 per cent surplus, but this dropped to 8.9 per cent when foreign multinationals were excluded. Reinforcing this, the CSO found that, in 2009, Irish businesses excluding finance had the highest profitability in the EU, apart from Cyprus, but fell below the EU average when multinationals were excluded.
Productivity per person in Irish business was the highest in the EU in 2009 but, again, fell closer to the average when multinationals were removed.
The CSO has also, for the first time, taken a snapshot of the activities of Irish multinationals and their activities abroad. It found, in 2010, Irish multinationals employed almost 249,000 in foreign affiliates, generating turnover of €71.9 billion. Foreign multinationals, by comparison, employed almost 257,000 in the Republic, producing turnover of €162.4 billion
When these foreign-owned multinationals are included, Irish businesses as a whole generated a turnover of almost €261,000 for each person engaged; this fell to €155,000 for indigenous businesses.
Productivity per individual was just under €32,000 for the smallest businesses and €133,000 for the larger entities. Excluding multinationals, the figure for the latter dropped markedly, falling to €72,000.
Galway wins ‘Irl/UK Great Town of the Year’ award
Galway has been named UK & Ireland Great Town of the Year 2013.
The Academy of Urbanism Annual Awards Ceremony took place in London today, and saw the city beat competition from English towns Falmouth in Cornwall and Shrewsbury in Shropshire.
Fifty entrants to the category were whittled down to 10, then a final three, before Galway was crowned the winner.
A panel of assessors visited Galway in August to judge on a range of criteria, including governance, commercial success and social sustainability.
World surfers swarm on Sligo for the year’s biggest waves
Surfers from around the world are flocking to Sligo in expectation of what might be Ireland’s biggest waves of the year if not the world’s most gigantic waves.
Breakers of up to 30 feet off Donegal Bay could be the result if growing swells in the Atlantic combine with southerly winds expected from this weekend.
“We have had 50ft waves in the past but 30ft waves would certainly be great and you would have a lot of surfers coming into Ireland to follow them,” said top Irish surf pro Richie Fitzgerald.
Elsewhere, President Michael D Higgins made a recent visit to the Somo Surf Centre inCantabria, northern Spain while attending Spanish courses ahead of his State visit to South America last month, as Oceanlook reports.
“I had already heard of the charms of Loredo and Somo,” the President commented. “There are many Irishmen flying to Cantabria in search of sun and also waves to get the chance to surf.”
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