Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is not the first time this has happened. I wanted to make a comment on this matter.

Eight weeks ago I raised an issue relating to the HSE whereby 1,100 people have been appointed to permanent positions with full salaries without job interview and without it being clarified whether they have the skills for those jobs. They went in to fill temporary positions and under the Haddington Road agreement and the Croke Park agreement their jobs were made permanent and pensionable. That was 1,100 people and here we are talking about one nomination. It must be remembered that the Taoiseach did not appoint John McNulty; he nominated him.

We have now have had no debate on those 1,100 people who have been appointed to key positions in the HSE. As a result of my doing an interview on RTE Radio, I got e-mails highlighting many other Government statutory authorities where jobs were also filled without a job interview. One of the positions filled carried a salary of €90,000. The person filled it in a temporary capacity and has now been made permanent. We should have a debate about hiding behind the recruitment embargo whereby jobs are not properly advertised and people are being put into temporary positions without it being clearly set out that they have the qualifications to fill those positions. It is about time we had a decent debate on that issue. We need good people in our health service even when we already have many good people in it. In future we need to ensure we have the right people in the jobs which are crucial for the development and reform of our health system. The Minister should come into the House to deal with that issue.