Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)

Question 46: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in view of the current closure of a respite facility at St Colman's Hospital, Rathdrum, County Wicklow, due to reduced staffing levels resulting from the public service moratorium on recruitment when the hospital is unable to hire staff to cover staff on maternity leave, sick leave and those who have retired, his plans to revise the moratorium; his views that such blanket moratoriums are a crude, inefficient and anti-meritocratic way of enforcing savings; if he will acknowledge that one result of the moratorium is that offices in the public service in which women take maternity leave inevitably suffer an increased workload, and that this may disproportionately impact on offices or work areas which happen to be staffed disproportionately by women; his views on the implications that this has for gender equality; and if he will make a statement on his assessment of the public service moratorium generally. [28894/11]

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