Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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205. To ask the Minister for Health with regard to the European working time directive, and the April 2015 Health Service Executive performance report which states that compliance with a maximum 48-hour week was at 70%, as of end April 2015, and given that the rate of improvement in this area since the start of 2014 slowed significantly in September 2014, and given the general assumption that further meaningful improvements are dependent on acute service reconfiguration, if he will outline the acute service reconfiguration that is envisaged to improve compliance. [25652/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The HSE National Service Plan 2015 outlines the arrangements envisaged to progress EWTD compliance. It states: "In 2015 the focus will be on achieving full EWTD compliance by reallocation of clinical tasks to the most appropriate member of staff, introduction of electronic time and attendance systems and reorganisation of acute services, supported by new management structures for hospitals services being progressed under Hospital Groups. In some settings, large-scale changes to existing acute hospital services are required to achieve full compliance."

It is recognised therefore that reorganisation and reconfiguration of acute services is required to achieve full EWTD compliance. Any changes to services will be undertaken in a planned and orderly manner and will take account of existing patient flows, the level of demand in hospitals and the new Group Hospital structures. Service provision, achievement of EWTD compliance and patient safety and outcomes will be priorities of the HSE in the development of the plan to support the attainment of compliance. The specific details of the plan will also be subject to the Court of Justice ruling on EWTD due on the 9th July 2015, in particular the extent, if any, to which protected training time constitutes working time. Currently the HSE and IMO have a collective agreement that excludes such time.