Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

This all sounds great in theory, but it is different when it comes down to the specifics. There are specialist areas where it is very difficult to get a replacement in the short term for somebody who opts out. The Deputy will be aware of the difficulty we had with regard to the Director of Corporate Enforcement. It was important that person stayed in his post until important work was concluded. However, I fully agree with the bulk of what Deputy Fleming has said. I am against the notion of rehiring people who have left and agree the terms for rehiring should be very restricted. I have had direct discussions with all my colleagues on this.

The Deputy made a specific point with regard to the health sector. I regret I do not have the specific numbers on the health area but, as the Deputy pointed out, they are the biggest numbers. In fairness to the Minister, everybody in the House knows there is a major job of work to do on restructuring the HSE and in fairness to the HSE, the sector has been very proactive in downsizing, in the past 12 months in particular as we saw from the report of the implementation body today. I am alert to the points made by Deputy Fleming. This is an issue on which we must keep a close scrutiny to ensure that when we are hiring, we are creating new positions for people new into employment and that people who retire on pensions are retired.

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