Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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1654.To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question 608 of 5 December 2023, to urgently review the excessive number of vacant posts within Our Lady of Lourdes hospital Drogheda (details supplied); if the recent lifting of the job embargo will positively impact this current vacancy level; to consider setting up a taskforce to assist hospitals with the highest post vacancies to recruit staff for these vital frontline positions; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[34125/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As recruitment at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible regards the impacts on current vacancy levels.

The Health Service Executive (HSE), working with the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform has, as a result, finalised its Pay and Numbers Strategy for 2024. There is now a new approved maximum Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) health staff figure for the HSE of 129,753 (excludes Disability). The funding of these posts removes the obstacle to normal recruitment and replacement in the remainder of the workforce, within the new agreed maximum number.

Instead, each of the six HSE Health Regions and each national service will be provided with its own specified number of WTEs and can within that approved number, replace, recruit, and prioritise as they see fit. A Health Region or national service will be able to prioritise filling vacancies that may arise within the allocation. They can also re-prioritise should they wish and remain adaptive, within overall national policy and guidance.

The allocation will include a limit on agency and overtime spend to accompany the WTE allocation. All previous year’s vacancies will have to have service assessment and be applied for using the new model.

The announcement also allows for the regularisation of 2,000 posts for which the HSE had recruited but up to now were not funded for, and a further 2,000 posts recruited temporarily to support services during the COVID-19 pandemic, and which are still in place.

The new process is being embedded by the HSE at present.