Public 'perplexed' at pay hike which will see NI health chiefs paid more than the Prime Minister - MLA
The public will be perplexed that Stormont’s health minister “prioritised” the pay of senior health trust executives – when the morale of front-line staff in hospitals is “so low”, an MLA has said.
In the Assembly on Monday, Diane Dodds raised a revelation in Saturday’s News Letter that Mike Nesbitt signed off a back-dated pay rise for senior health service managers – which is “not dependent on satisfactory performance”.
It means that trust executives received a “consolidated increase” of 6.33% in the last financial year – part of an arrangement that sees automatic progression up the pay scales until 2026/27.
The Department of Heath (DoH) says the pay and grading system is “fair, transparent, affordable and defensible” – and reflected the Agenda for Change pay award when the scheme was drawn up in 2023, in the absence of ministers. It was eventually signed off by Mr Nesbitt in 2025.
Addressing MLAs in the Stormont chamber, the DUP MLA said the news had come as “a considerable surprise” given current waiting lists in the NHS.
“The public will be perplexed that the Minister has chosen to do that, particularly in light of the fact that he has still not fulfilled his promise to implement the real living wage for domiciliary care workers.
“That is the huge contrast that exists on the issue of pay. The salaries that were signed off by the Minister will see the pay of those on the lowest rung of the executive pay scale exceed £100,000 per year, with those on the highest rung receiving almost a quarter of a million pounds per year.
“Those salaries will dwarf the salaries of our Prime Minister, First Ministers, judges and senior clinicians. That raises serious questions, particularly when the morale of front-line staff in hospitals is so low and people are working so hard to make sure that our health service functions”
“Most galling of all is the fact that some of those who will get the automatic pay increase right up to 2029, will have been responsible for the debacle with the new maternity hospital and the new children's hospital, and the fact that we will possibly wait four and a half years before the former can be entered or used in any substantial way”, she said.