<access>PROPERTY</access>

public int getFoo() {
return 0;
}

This fails with
Caused by: org.hibernate.PropertyNotFoundException: Could not find a setter for property foo

If the return type is complex like this,
public Bar getFoo() {
return new Bar();
}

Then it fails with this,
Caused by: org.hibernate.MappingException: Could not determine type for: com.example.model.impl.Bar, at table: User, for columns: [org.hibernate.mapping.Column(foo)]

Since there is no setter, this is not a bean property. So it should be ignored. Actually, it is ignored by OpenJPA and EclispseLink but Hibernate needs a transient. This causes the orm.xml to have more transients than the real properties.

I feel this is a bug. Can it be fixed?

Could you compensate by making private setters?

Unfortunately, no. Its a huge application and not easy to go through all entities and add private setters.

I don't agree - it's what I'd call a read-only-property...
Quite another question is, how hibernate should handle those read-only-properties...

See section 2.1.1 Persistent Fields and Properties of the spec, quoted below,
"It is required that the entity class follow the method signature conventions for JavaBeans read/write
properties (as defined by the JavaBeans Introspector class) for persistent properties when persistent properties are used.
In this case, for every persistent property property of type T of the entity, there is a getter method, getProperty, and setter method setProperty. For boolean properties, isProperty is an alternative name for the getter method."

This also brings us to my other question,
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=999049

Clearly, from the spec, isProperty is an alternative for getter. So presence of isX and getX should not result in MappingException.

IMO, both of these are hibernate bugs.