Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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Question 435: To ask the Minister for Health if he has any plans to offer a voluntary redundancy programme to Health Service Executive non-administration staff, that is, kitchen staff, cleaners, porters and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19764/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to bringing about a significant reduction in the number of staff across the public service over the period to 2015, to realise efficiencies in the delivery of public services and contribute to the overall correction of the national finances, while protecting front-line services as far as possible. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is currently considering the range of measures that will be necessary to bring about the necessary numbers reductions.Policy measures across various areas of Government activity should contribute to this overall objective, and a comprehensive review of expenditure to examine all areas where savings and numbers reductions might be identified is currently taking place.

Part of the overall policy on public service numbers may involve voluntary staff exit mechanisms, and the options in this regard will be considered by the Government in this overall context. As the Deputy will be aware, in 2010, the Voluntary Early Retirement and Voluntary Redundancy Schemes were open to staff from the General Support grade category (kitchen staff, cleaners, porters etc) in the Health Service Executive. A total of 672 individuals left the health service from this particular grade category under both schemes.