Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 10 July 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children

Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Minister for Health

11:10 am

Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

In general terms, where one can, yes. Certainly, our director of HR and colleagues on the service side are looking at specific areas where we can recruit additional staff and reduce agency and overtime. Obviously, one must ensure that one does not end up having additional staff and the agency and overtime remains.

I emphasis, "where one can recruit". There must be a market with applicants who are willing to take the jobs. In that regard, there are issues on the medical side. Where we can get additional staff to reduce agency and overtime and we can be reasonably assured that such agency and overtime will not creep up again, that is part of what we are seeking to do this year in terms of reducing our overall deficit towards break even.