Former Ryanair boss told HSE its €91.3m travel and expenses bill for staff was 'too high'

A former top executive of Ryanair told the HSE the travel and expenses bill for staff at €1,050 per staff member was too expensive and should be drastically reduced.Michael Cawley, who was appointed to the health service board last year, said a €91.3m annual travel and subsistence bill was “too high” and “much more control needed to be exercised by management”.Mr Cawley, a former deputy chief executive of Ryanair, said the use of online conference platforms like Teams and Zoom could be used to reduce the spend significantly.In an email to fellow board members and HSE senior management, he wrote: “Pre-authorisation of all travel by [management] together with a prohibition on foreign travel should yield considerable savings.”The discussions took place earlier this year as the health service looked to cut costs, with several areas of spending targeted for savings.One of them was travel and subsistence, with one senior official saying savings could be made by “applying existing rules rathe...