Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 982: To ask the Minister for Health the number of requests from the Health Service Executive to lift the employment embargo on posts in the public sector; the number of posts that have been approved; and the number of posts that are currently pending. [23922/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Under the Employment Control Framework for the Health Sector, the HSE has discretion to make exceptions to the general moratorium on recruitment in the public service in order to maintain essential services and to meet priority service change/reorganisation requirements. Such exceptions must of necessity be kept to a minimum so that the targeted employment reductions and consequential payroll savings are met.

The HSE has advised that the number of decisions on exceptions to the moratorium in 2011, up to the end of June 2011, was 377 wholetime equivalents (excluding most voluntary hospitals and agencies).

In addition the above exceptions, the Employment Control Framework provides that certain grades and posts are exempted from the moratorium, such as social workers, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and medical consultants.

Recently, the HSE made the decision to pause recruitment due to its financial situation. Notwithstanding this pause, exceptions are still being made to address critical service risk.