Ms Ashley Connolly:

The Deputy has raised a very important point. It is 100% the case that there were vacant posts in the system on 31 December 2023 which, when the HSE issued the pay and numbers strategy in July, were "decommissioned", which is the word the HSE is using. On its payroll and HR system, the HSE decommissioned the posts and moved them to another category. The vacant posts have disappeared. They are no longer counted in the HSE's census.

We lodged an FOI request. It is regrettable that a trade union has to seek information via an FOI but we did. Fórsa received a response only yesterday evening which states that: “In an effort to locate the records that you sought I referred to the Strategic Workforce Planning and Intelligence who confirmed National HR do not hold the records requested by grade.” I find it very alarming that the national HR system does not capture the number of vacant posts in the country. How do we plan a service? How do we decide what is needed in what area? How do we determine what posts should be suppressed or decommissioned without risk-assessing the impact that could have in any region?

What we are hearing daily from our members is not the impact that this is having on staff because morale is on the floor but the impact it is having on the people they meet on a daily basis. It is the cancelled appointments, the longer waiting lists and knowing that when you receive referral you might not get to see that patient for two years. This is the reality, so I am very alarmed that the information was not captured. I can say that in the same reply to our FOI request the HSE confirmed that there is a minus variance of 2,444 in the number of posts as at yesterday's date compared to 31 December 2023.