Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the extent of which nursing or other posts need to be filled at each public hospital here in order to ensure the availability of the full complement of services required; her plans to expedite the procedures to facilitate the early filling of such posts in each case with particular reference to situations when the hospital authorities have indicated an urgency in order to maintain a high quality and availability of service while in compliance with recruitment guidelines; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34581/10]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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The Government has made clear that a critical part of its strategy to restore the public finances is to achieve sustainability in the cost of delivering public services relative to State revenues. To help achieve this goal, it will be necessary to restructure and reorganise the public service and to reduce public service numbers over the coming years. This requires that the moratorium on recruitment and promotion in the health service will continue to apply until the numbers have fallen to the level set out in the Employment Control Framework for the health sector. The Framework for 2010-2012 gives effect to the Government decision on employment policy in the public sector and provides that there will be a net reduction in employment to 2012. This includes a target reduction in numbers in 2010 to achieve the overall reduction of 6,000 from March 2009 to the end 2012 and consequential pay roll savings. Based on numbers reductions already achieved in 2009, the net target reduction to end 2012 is 4,560 WTE (or 1,520 per annum). While there is provision in the HSE's Employment Control Framework for some exemptions and exceptions these are limited because of the need to achieve the required payroll savings.