Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 23 October 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Staffing Levels in the HSE: Fórsa

9:30 am

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Yes. I wish to come back to the concluding remarks in Fórsa's opening statement. Before I do that, another important point was made when it was said that we should not conflate new development posts with core service delivery, the replacement of staff, staff turnover, etc. From what was said, I am assuming that the Minister quite rightly is saying there is recruitment and that the numbers are there to recruit staff for new development posts. This is part of any budgetary process where there are core new developments and current expenditure made available. What we are seeing here, and has been the result of the recruitment embargo and now the pay and numbers strategy, is that in core service delivery areas we have posts that were vacant and needed but that are now gone. Essentially, is this what is being said?