Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for Health the number and cost of rehiring retired staff in his Department, in the Health Service Executive, the National Treatment Purchase Fund and all agencies under his remit since February 2012; if he will provide a breakdown of grades and specialties; the number of clinical posts that remain vacant; the impact this is having on the safe delivery of services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29552/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to reducing the cost of the public service through reducing the numbers employed, combined with measures to increase efficiency. We must ensure the maximum levels of safe services are provided within the resources available. I acknowledge and welcome the improvements in productivity being achieved by health service staff through the public service agreement through, for example, redeployment, streamlining of management structures, changes in skill-mix and more cost-effective rosters. In dealing with the significant number of retirements during the recent pensions grace period, the HSE focused in particular on protecting and maintaining critical front-line services.

It is HSE policy not to rehire retired staff members. In exceptional circumstances, however, it may be necessary to rehire on a short-term basis to meet critical service needs. A total of 38 recently retired staff have been rehired. These comprise 11 consultants, four other medical staff, 19 nurses, a radiographer, a senior orthoptist, an attendant and one clerical officer. The HSE is not in a position to provide cost information in the time available, and this will be supplied to the Deputy as soon as possible. Pension abatement rules apply to all appointments of retired staff in the HSE and elsewhere in the health sector.

No retired member of staff has been rehired by the Department. Arrangements are in train to engage three retired staff members on a temporary basis for the forthcoming Irish Presidency of the EU. No costs have arisen to date in this regard.

In the non-commercial State agencies, two retired staff have been engaged on a consultancy basis. One former public servant was recruited, following open competition, on a part-time basis for a fixed term of five years. The nature and cost of these three positions is detailed in the tabular statement. No retired staff have been rehired by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I hope the HSE will live up to that commitment that it should not, where possible, rehire those who retired under the incentivised scheme for early retirement. The real difficulty is when we pare back the figures and look at the number of agency staff being employed by the HSE. We are talking about a potential €204 million this year, which does not take into account the full impact of locums. The budget could be dramatically more than €204 million.

The Minister gave a commitment last year in the Dáil when he said the costs of agency staff were horrendous. So far, in the first quarter of this year, there has been an increase, to €51 million, in the amount of money being spent on hiring agency staff. That is not sustainable. On a quick, back of the envelope calculation, that could employ 3,000 full-time nurses or 1,000 consultants. We must recognise that €204 million is a sizeable sum every year. It has the potential to address the deficiencies in front-line services by having a streamlined system of recruitment in areas that need it rather than depending on temporary staff all the time.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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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.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I accept the commitment of the HSE and the Minister not to rehire staff. I was first to accept in the context of the incentivised early retirement scheme that it was a necessity to do so in cases where people with the required skillset were not available immediately to replace those retiring. I have no difficulty with rehiring staff on short-term contracts to address deficiencies in skillsets.

However, I refer again to the broader issue agency staff. During the first quarter of 2012, €51 million was spent on these staff. If that continues, the spend for the year will be well in excess of €200 million. This does not include the cost of locums and other temporary measures. The total cost, therefore, could be between €220 million and €230 million by year's end. Does the Minister agree there was a commitment to reduce this expenditure by 50%? If that is to happen, no agency staff will be hired for the second half of this year because the entire budget was spent in the first six months.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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There is very often a lack of clarity around this. The grace period to the end of February did not relate to an incentivised retirement scheme. Those who had the option to retire could do so on their current terms and conditions before-----

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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One was disincentivised if one did not.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I did not interrupt the Deputy but I need to correct the record of the House. It was not an incentivised retirement scheme; it was simply a case of those who had the option to retire doing so on their current terms and conditions which were due to change. Some people took the option to retire while many others did not. We are grateful to those who did not because we had a challenge in the health service to maintain services but we managed to maintain a safe service through the grace period, despite dire warnings from the Opposition to the contrary. A great deal of work remains to be done on the reorganisation of the health service. When I leave the House later, I will attend the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland to launch the new emergency medicine programme, which will improve matters in our accident and emergency departments.