HSE medical consultant paid over €17,000 per week in 2025

Gordon Deegan

One medical consultant employed by the HSE was paid on average €17,492 per week in 2025.

New figures provided by the HSE in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request show that the top-earning medical consultant last year received €909,608 in pay.

The medic was the only HSE employee to receive over €900,000 last year, and there was no one in that earning bracket in 2024.

The figures show that the medical consultant’s total remuneration was made up of €470,598 in basic pay, €232,028 in allowances, €138,382 for ‘on call’, €60,585 in overtime, and arrears of €8,015.

The second highest paid consultant received €817,980 where the consultant received more in allowances at €444,756 than in basic pay at €373,224.

One other consultant to feature in the top earners’ list received the highest overtime payment of €192,757 amongst the top 20 best paid for 2025. The €192,757 in overtime was part of overall pay of €523,945.

Another consultant received an overtime payment of €189,237.

Three other consultants received between €700,000 and €800,000; one received between €600,000 to €700,000 and five more received between €500,000 and €600,000.

A further 57 received between €400,000 and €500,000.

The top 10 paid consultants were last year paid an aggregate €6.28 million.

The number of consultants earning over €100,000 last year totalled 5,221 that included 2,674 earning between €100,000 and €200,000 with 1,723 earning between €200,000 and €300,000.

A further 757 earned between €300,000 and €400,000.

Asked to comment on the figures, a spokesman for the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) said: “Headline figures on consultant earnings can be very misleading.

He said: “The average earnings on the mid-point of the new salary scale is €262,000, which equates to approximately €130,000-€140,000 after tax and deductions.

“This salary is only achievable after having spent around 20 years in education, specialist training and fellowship posts.

"Hospital consultants represent less than 3% of the approximately 176,000 workers in Ireland with income levels of €150,000-plus, largely from the multinational sector, placing their earnings firmly in a broader national context.

“The higher individual earning figures relate to exceptional levels of additional work carried out by consultants — extended hours, weekend and overnight on-call and covering vacant posts in an understaffed system — not standard salaries.

“The real issue is not excessive pay but a persistent failure to recruit sufficient numbers of consultants to meet demand, and requiring a small cohort, often to rural Model 3 hospitals, to sustain critical patient services through extensive and excessive workloads in a highly pressurised environment.

"This is leading to significant levels of stress and burnout. Addressing these specialist workforce deficits should be a key concern for health service management.”

A spokeswoman for the HSE said: “Consultants play a central role in how care is delivered.

“Following at least a decade of learning, practising and specialising (including medical school, internship, and basic and higher specialist training, often followed by fellowships) consultants are the senior clinical decision makers, leading medical teams and overseeing the care of thousands of HSE patients.

“Alongside their vital work treating patients, consultants shape clinical standards, lead multidisciplinary teams, and drive improvements across the health service.

"There are a range of payments and allowances which have the potential to increase remuneration significantly above basic pay as part of standard contractual terms and conditions”.