Two HSE consultants were paid retirement lump sums of over €400,000 this year.

A further 11 got at least €300,000, according to Freedom of Information documents released to Newstalk.

In the first nine months of this year, the HSE paid out retirement lump sums totalling nearly €94m to its staff.

The top 25 payments were all over €211,000 - and 24 of them were paid to consultants.

The highest amount was the nearly €420,000 that was paid out to a consultant radiologist.

The second highest was the €409,000 paid to a psychiatrist.

Beaumont Hospital consultant Bill Tormey told Newstalk the amounts are way over-the-top.

“Excessive is the only word I could say,” he said. “mad or excessive.”

“You can buy a fairly decent sized house with that in a posh area and I think it is very, very high as an exit at the end of the day because it is not as if the lump sum is not accompanied by a pension which is half pay.

“That is paid out to people who are basically debt-free.”

Eleven consultants got lump sums of between €300,000 and €400,000 - including gynaecologists, surgeons and physicians.

In all, nearly 28,000 retired HSE staff received pensions between January and September, amounting to €311m.

The HSE said the amounts are based on staff member's rate of pay, pensionable allowances and length of service.