Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

However, because of the enormous number of grades — there are close to 26,000 coded grades across the health service — it is simply not compatible with what they are doing. Last October and again this year, the Health Service Executive, with officials of the Department of Finance, stated several times through the news media that it was reviewing the system. It does not intend to dump the system; it is reviewing it to see whether it can find another way to add the remaining numbers. It is a major problem that requires a modern single system that can deal with the payroll for 140,000 staff. Nobody will dump on the HSE. The Government will work with the HSE to try to improve the health service.

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