Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I will take this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney. I begin by thanking the Deputy for raising this issue and for giving me the opportunity to outline the current position on recruitment in the public health service.

I stress that the HSE must manage within the resources made available to it by Government and voted by this House. Managing the budget in the health sector means managing staff and making the best use of the available resources. Staff costs make up almost 70% of the HSE's overall budget. In a service of this scale, with an employee cohort of this size, it cannot be the case that every vacancy which arises must be filled immediately.

To live within its budget, the HSE must carefully manage the recruitment and deployment of staff. The board of the HSE is committed to ensuring that staff costs are controlled and managed to best effect, that an appropriate balance is achieved between clinical and non-clinical posts, that there is a better skill mix within the clinical areas and that staffing levels provide cost-effective, safe and high-quality care to patients.

The current recruitment pause is a temporary measure initiated as part of the HSE's financial break-even plan and it continues to be monitored by the HSE. In any instance where a critical or essential vacancy arises, it may be filled through redeployment of existing staff by the relevant line manager or re-assignment of responsibilities based on assessment of priority need.

Notwithstanding this, it has been recognised that during the period of this temporary recruitment pause, there are some circumstances where appointment of staff may be necessary in frontline services. Accordingly, the HSE has put a process in place to evaluate, monitor and approve requests for derogation from the general recruitment pause. A small group has been established, including a representative of the HSE's national employment monitoring unit, the National Hospitals Office, PCCC and other directorates, and this group meets regularly to consider such applications. Of the applications received to date, derogations to the value of 520.8 whole-time equivalents have been approved, where posts have been identified as critical to service delivery.

There are close to 130,000 people employed in the delivery of our public health and personal social services, the vast majority of whom provide direct service to patients and clients. The current pause in recruitment must be viewed in this context. As I have previously stated, it is a temporary measure put in place by the HSE to live within its budget.

Since the establishment of the HSE, the number of medical and dental personnel has increased by 1,087 whole-time equivalents, which equates to 15.5%. The number of nursing personnel has increased by 4,652, or 13.6%, to 38,965. The number of health and social care professionals has increased by 2,932, or 22.9%, to 15,762. I draw Deputy Costello's particular attention to the number of physiotherapists, which has increased by 301, or 26.5%, since the establishment of the HSE. In addition, the number of training places for physiotherapists has increased by 81, from 64 in 1997 to 145 in 2007. This represents an increase of over 126% in the past ten years. The House will agree that these changes clearly demonstrate the commitment of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, the Government and the Health Service Executive to ensuring focus on patient care and the recruitment of frontline personnel.

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