Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 14 November 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Discussion

9:00 am

Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

It varies depending on whether the agency staff in question are support staff or medical staff, for example. In the case of some medical staff it depends on where in the country the vacancy is and what the market is like. The premium can be from 20% and it can be significantly higher. It is in our interest and something we should pursue constantly, which is trying to limit the number of agency staff we use, get the best price for agency workers. It is not just for financial reasons. Obviously there are continuity of care reasons we would prefer to have a lower reliance on agency staff. There is always a case where agency staff may make sense for the short term. It is when we become reliant on it in the long term that it becomes problematic. It is a problem in certain areas of the service. We have been upfront about that.

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