John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Having done a very quick tot in my head, if the hospital was provided with €2.5 million and €881,000, that comes to approximately €3.3 million. In the reply I received to the parliamentary question I asked in March, the sum of €5.6 million was identified as a deficit. That still leaves a shortfall of €2.3 million. One part of the HSE has given me one figure and the Minister of State has given me a different figure.

From speaking to people involved in the hospital locally I know the real issue is that there is a significant shortfall and it has to be met. I have no issues with activity-based funding, better efficiencies and all that goes with that, but there is a transition period, this is the first year of the new system and the hospital in Kerry needs the shortfall to be made up in order that there is not a significant clinical risk, as was pointed out in the reply I received to my parliamentary question.

I hope there is not a significant clinical risk, but if one is dealing with a shortfall of €2.3 million, I do not see any other outcome.

I wish to apprise the Minister of the gravity of the situation. Both the hospital manager and assistant hospital manager in Kerry were operating in temporary positions for the last number of years. Both of them were doing an exceptionally good job in the circumstances. In March this year both those jobs were advertised as full-time permanent contracts, yet neither the acting manager nor the acting deputy manager saw fit to apply for them. They basically felt that given the circumstances and restraints, they would not be in a position to do the job properly. That, therefore, is the challenge facing us when two extremely efficient and capable people will not apply for permanent jobs when they become available. That challenge will continue until such time as we address staffing issues in all our hospitals.

There is a historic issue from the moratorium that was in place whereby voluntary hospitals continued to recruit because they were directed to do so by their boards of management. Public hospitals obeyed the moratorium, however. Now there is a huge imbalance which we will have to address. We have to get staffing up to a level that allows the hospital to function and does not cripple it with agency costs which result in budget overruns. In this case it is €2.3 million above what is allowed for.

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