Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will refer very briefly to point 10 in that correspondence, as I would like the committee to be kept informed. One issue that arose during the year was the number of funded posts and the level of recruitment that happened against that. It fell considerably short of the number of posts which were funded. Point 10 is a case in point and is one which I raised with the HSE. This had to do with bereavement support and social workers for families in St. Brigid’s Hospice, Kildare and a chaplaincy post, which for people who are religious is quite central and an important post. This seems to have been going on for quite a long time and when one talks about bereavement and social workers, for example, where there are children involved, there is a price to pay for not having that kind of expertise there at the right time to support families. These are important posts but I cannot believe that we are still talking about these positions being on panels and where these staff members have not been recruited yet. I would like to be kept informed of those positions.