Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. On the pay and numbers strategy, that has been authorised, so there should be no issue with it being published. It comes to a little over 1,800 new posts and we are seeking mechanisms to fully roll out safe staffing through agency conversion as well. The net impact will be about 2,300 staff and more staff will be announced as part of the additional €92 million new development funding towards the end of the year. There will be no issue with publishing the pay and numbers strategy.

With regard to the embargo, no more than the Deputy, I have met front-line teams, be they community or hospital teams, and I am very aware the embargo is impacting on them and causing pressure in different ways in teams throughout the country. We have put in place various exceptions, including in emergency care, in intensive care and, on a case-by-case basis, in some other areas. The Deputy will be aware we are also fully honouring our commitments to hiring nursing interns. No embargo has been applied to consultant posts and we are on our way to radically increasing the number of consultants.

Specifically on the embargo, the Deputy will be aware its genesis is not a lack of funding for this year. Rather, last year, a record number of funded posts, about 6,000, were created and the HSE hired well in excess of 8,000 posts, which left more than 2,000 posts that had been either hired or committed to for which there was no funding. Unfortunately, a coarse measure was needed. A graduated approach had been used through the year but it had little effect. I will give more information in my follow-up response.

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