Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To move away from the Houses of the Oireachtas and turn to the public service and Civil Service, I am familiar with cases where, for example, a professional working in a publicly-funded hospital but not one that comes under the remit of the HSE has been seconded to the Department or the HSE and that person's hospital position would have been backfilled but it would only be on a temporary basis because it the post holder is on secondment. The professional can return to that role when the secondment finishes. I know of cases where five or six years later, a professional backfilling that position is still temporary. The consequences of that are significant. If a person want to get a mortgage, he or she will not get one on having a non-secure employment position. People are seconded for long durations over a five-year period and the backfilling of those positions is still temporary. Is that fair in this day and age in terms of the public sector and those publicly funded institutions such as our hospitals? It is no wonder people are seeking more permanency and travelling across the water in some cases.