Ms Linda Kelly:

No, it is a factual question around numbers. I would love to be able to give the Deputy the data but the HSE refuses to give that data to us or anybody else. I can split it into two timelines. There are the vacancies that were in the health service in 2023. The HSE decommissioned all of those vacant posts. We have requested that information and have been forced to resort to a freedom of information request. We got that FOI response yesterday from the HSE, in which it indicated it does not collect that data. This raises for us an even greater concern, that either the CEO of the HSE signed away a whole load of vacancies without having the data available to us or else the HSE is refusing to release it under FOI. We intend to appeal that. That is a problem area. There is complete disagreement between us and the HSE in relation to that. From our intelligence from members on the ground, there were clearly vacancies right across the service, as there are always vacancies in any employment due to people leaving, turnover and all of that.

In relation to 2024, what we have is a bizarre situation where the HSE is saying recruitment is happening as normal, there is nothing to see here and everybody should move on. That is certainly not the experience of members. We see an attempt in the spin from the HSE to focus on new development posts. That is valid. There are new developments and they are always welcome. When it comes to core service delivery, what we see from the HSE's own census report is that it is not recruiting to actually replace turnover. If I can give the Deputy the example of the therapy grades - speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy - looking at 2024, the data from last year shows that the turnover rate for that group of staff was just over 13%. It is one of the highest rates of turnover for the HSE. There were 6,700 people in post at the end of last year. We will leave aside the disputed vacancies. There were 6,700 doing the job last year. To stand still at that number, the HSE needs to recruit 884 therapists this year. That is pretty clear-cut in terms of the HSE's own figures that it provides publicly. This year, on its census to date, the HSE is down 44 posts, which means it is actually now at a rate of over 900 vacancies for therapists alone, yet we are all to believe that recruitment is happening as normal.