Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome yesterday's report on the ambulance service by the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, to the Joint Committee on Health and Children. I agree with Senator Darragh O'Brien that people who work in the ambulance service provide an excellent service and are extremely committed and dedicated to their jobs. In this regard, I would like to read into the record of this House an extract from the HIQA report. It states:

Many managers outlined that they had changed roles with the service in recent times. Some of these staff reported to us that they did not have formal job descriptions which outline the specifics of their roles and the aligned responsibilities. More worryingly, some staff reported to us that while they had accepted new positions within the service they did not have the appropriate technical knowledge.

That is extremely worrying. It ties in with an issue I identified six months, namely, the transfer-promotion of 1,100 HSE staff to new roles in respect of which they had not undergone any job interview. Is the same happening in the ambulance service? Are people hiding behind the recruitment embargo and promoting people to positions for which they are not suitably qualified? According to the HIQA report this is what is happening. It is about time we addressed the problem within the public service of people being given jobs for which they do not have the required skills. It is time we had a debate on this matter. The day of people being able to hide behind the recruitment embargo is over. The job of Government is to provide services for the general public. We are now finding that some of the people providing those services do not have the skills, knowledge or technical know-how to do so. It is time we had a debate on the issue and time people stopped hiding behind the recruitment embargo.