Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 177: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will confirm her commitment to adequate staffing of front-line services in the health service; her recruitment strategy that will ensure the adequate staffing of front-line health services; if a review is under way on the impact of the staffing moratorium on the delivery of health services in view of instances in which minimum staffing levels are potentially jeopardising the full implementation of health and safety regulation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24465/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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In order to implement savings measures on public service numbers, the Government introduced a moratorium on recruitment, promotion, or payment of an allowance for the performance of duties at a higher grade with effect from 27 March 2009 to end 2010. A HSE circular has issued which gives effect to the Government decision in the public health services and other specific aspects of the employment control framework for the health services.

The HSE will be focussing on the scope that exists within the health services for reorganising and restructuring of work in order to minimise the impact on essential service delivery. The redeployment and reassignment of existing staff will also support the reorientation of care from hospitals to the community and to facilitate the development of integrated care. It is seeking a high level of flexibility from staff and unions to achieve this.

The Government decision has been modulated to ensure that key services are maintained as far as possible in the health services, particularly in respect of children at risk, older people and persons with a disability.

In addition, the employment control framework specifically exempts the following front line grades in the health sector from the moratorium: Medical Consultants, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Clinical Psychologists, Behaviour Therapists, Counsellors, Social Workers, and Emergency Medical Technicians. The framework actually allows for a growth in the number of those posts within the overall approved employment ceiling (111,800 whole-time equivalents) for the health sector. The framework also includes provision for the creation of 225 new development posts this year for cancer and disability services. In addition, special provisions apply in relation to Clinical Engineering Technicians, Dosimetrists, Physicists, and Radiation Therapists, which are specialist grades under the National Cancer Control Programme.

The focus on these key grades is in line with existing Government policy on the prioritisation of certain development areas, for which significant funding has already been provided. The overall result will be to assist in the reorientation of health employment to services delivered in primary and community care.

I wish to advise that as part of the Employment Control Framework for the health sector, the Joint Employment Control Monitoring Committee, comprising officials from my Department, the Department of Finance and the HSE, meets regularly to monitor health employment levels and to review the implementation of the moratorium and any issues arising.