Mr. Bernard Gloster:

In fairness, I have told the Deputy that I have identified where the issue of the balance of these posts are and they are approved to go to recruitment. This is resolved. Part of this is because neuro-rehabilitation crosses health and disability services and the transfer of functions last year means two Departments are involved. This took some clarification in recent days on my part, which I now have, and I have committed to it. I will resolve this issue.

In the context of how something was or was not recruited for, I genuinely do not want to be unfair or disparaging to anybody. I cannot look individually at every post. We are speaking about 162,000 people. This is the number of people in the recruitment domain of the HSE and on the payroll. It is a very complex workforce. When jobs are given out to be recruited, approved and announced, they are done so in good faith. If they are not filled because somebody is not available to fill them, or somebody is waiting to fill something else, it can happen that they then get caught in a timeline where the circumstances of the organisation change. It does not mean we are indifferent to the needs of the people who are at the end of them.