Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for the information where he indicated that 8,000 have retired up to the end of February and he expects possibly another 500 to leave over the subsequent ten months up to the end of the year. Does that meet his original target as I thought there was a figure of closer to 9,000? How many new people will be recruited to fill the vacancies created by the 8,500 who have retired or will be retiring? The obvious area is teaching. A number of those retiring are teachers and many of them must be replaced - there is no question about that. In how many cases has the Minister given approval for the recruitment embargo to be lifted? I know the HSE got a budget to recruit additional staff in the primary care and mental health areas. It was given a budget to do so and once it does not exceed that budget it does not need to go back to the Minister for supplementary approval on a post-by-post basis.

See this speech in context