The new chief executive of Temple Street children's hospital, who took up the post just last October, has opted to avail of the government's generous exit scheme for HSE staff, the Sunday Tribune can reveal.

Phil Shovlin, a highly experienced health manager who previously worked as a key aide to former chief executive Professor Brendan Drumm, notified her hospital colleagues of her intention to leave her job in the middle of December.

The hospital has since confirmed that she was due to finish up last week and that an acting chief executive has been appointed.

The revelation has prompted Fine Gael health spokesman and deputy leader James Reilly to describe the exit scheme as a "shambles" because it is targeting the wrong type of health-service staff.

Under the terms of the HSE exit deal, Shovlin will typically be entitled to a severance payment of three weeks' pay per year of service, subject to an overall limit of two years' pay, and immediate payment of pension entitlements on retirement.

She will also receive her full lump-sum entitlement from the HSE, which, given her years of service, is likely to be substantial.

"It is of great concern to me the redundancy package has been so clumsily conceived and implemented so that people who we don't want to leave are leaving," Reilly said. "This is a real issue now for the level of expertise which will be left within the health service. These were supposed to be middle managers who were going, but instead we have top CEOs and others, who are clearly going to get big packages.

"They can then go on to take up lucrative roles in the private sector, which is their right. But such departures are not in the best interests of the health service. You can't not have a CEO of Temple Street, so we are going to have to pay someone to replace her anyway."

Donal Walsh, chairman of the board of Temple Street hospital, said the hospital was "naturally very disappointed" to see Shovlin go, "but fully understands and accepts her decision which was made in light of the government's once-off early retirement programme". He added: "The board will be working with the HSE to fill the CEO position to ensure the excellent work done for very sick children by our hospital and the other children's hospitals continues and that there is a smooth transition of ongoing operational and strategic work to the new [national children's] hospital."

A spokeswoman for the HSE said "there is no provision for the employer to refuse an application from management/administrative grade staff".

The government had hoped to achieve savings of up to €200m a year from the once-off scheme. However, it has only had 1,700 confirmed applications from staff, far below the 3,000-5,000 it had targeted.

Shovlin has more than 30 years' experience in the health sector, and held a number of senior management positions.