Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the past eight years a general moratorium on recruitment and promotion, coupled with an employment control framework, has contributed to a fall in employment across the public health sector and the wider public service. Arising from budget 2015, restrictions on the employment of additional staff were eased in 2015.

In December 2014 I convened the emergency department task force to provide a focus and momentum in dealing with the challenges presented by overcrowding. In 2015, €117 million in additional funding was allocated specifically to address overcrowding in emergency departments, including through the ongoing recruitment of front-line staff.

It is recognised that the solution to the problem of emergency department overcrowding is to be found through putting in place alternatives to hospital admission and services which facilitate earlier discharge, as well as in addressing the efficiency and capacity of hospitals in delivering acute treatment. Accordingly, the solution requires improvements in both the wider hospital beyond the emergency department, as well as in primary and social care and community services.

Health Service Executive figures show there was a 8% reduction in overcrowding in November compared to November last year. While the INMO, Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, figures show a 4% increase, they also show a significant improvement in the second half of November. This contrasts with the position throughout the year when we were running 24% ahead of the figure in the preceding year. This morning there were 244 patients on trolleys, 110 for more than nine hours. That is 23% lower than the figure this day last year.

A total of 4,643 staff members have been recruited by hospital groups in the past year. They includes replacement staff. The increase in the number of whole-time equivalent staff during the same period was approximately 2,500. Of the staff recruited, 254 have been assigned to emergency departments.

The HSE is finalising its national service plan for 2016, meaning that it is not possible at this stage to predict the additional emergency department staff numbers for 2016. However, hospitals have authority to deploy staff in the most effective way possible within agreed funding levels.

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