Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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605. To ask the Minister for Health the number of staff are employed in each county as child care facilities inspectors; the number of new staff that have been employed in each county by the Health Service Executive as child care facilities inspectors since the Prime Time Investigates entitled A Breech of Trust Exposé; in view of the fact that new legislation will strengthen regulations in this sector, the number of new staff that will be employed to inspect these new regulations. [40931/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Government has decided that the numbers employed across the public service must be reduced, in order to meet fiscal and budgetary targets. As a major employer, the health sector must make a significant contribution to this reduction. This policy requires that, by the end of 2013, the health service achieves a workforce of 98,938 wholetime equivalents, WTEs. The HSE may continue to recruit staff in exceptional circumstances, where it has been established that there is an urgent service requirement and that this can be accommodated within the budgetary constraints and overall employment ceiling. In relation to the specific issue, as this is a matter for the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the Deputy should raise the matter with my colleague Deputy Frances Fitzgerald.