James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The figure of 600 to 700 rehired retirees which has been quoted in the media relates to the years 2010 and 2011. Since the grace period, 38 people have been rehired out of a total workforce of 103,000, which is pretty minimal. I have made it clear that I do not want staff rehired if people are available to be hired. I want to give young nurses, doctors, administrators and anybody due to come into the system a job and not re-employ staff who have retired, but sometimes people in specific areas, particularly consultants must be. I know of a hand surgeon who was rehired but there are only two in the country and we could not do without his services until a new consultant is appointed. I hope that goes some way to explaining this.

With regard to the Deputy's contention about the use of agency nursing staff, we are very much focused on reductions in this area and I look forward to the public service agreement to address that issue.

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