Written answers
Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Department of Health
Health Services Staff
Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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333. To ask the Minister for Health the reason her Department and the HSE do not maintain a record of approved HSE posts that remain unfilled for more than six months; the mechanisms currently used to monitor persistent vacancies of this kind; the way in which her Department assesses the financial effect of these long-term vacancies on the Exchequer and the impact of such vacancies on service delivery and workforce planning; and if she will now direct the HSE to establish a formal audit process for posts that remain unfilled for extended periods. [66568/25]
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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334. To ask the Minister for Health to specify how her Department calculates the financial implications arising from HSE posts that remain unfilled for more than six months, including the projected savings, additional costs linked to overtime or agency staffing, and the effect on service capacity; and to outline whether a standard methodology is applied across HSE regions. [66569/25]
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The HSE does not produce pay or staffing data in sufficiently granular detail to calculate the financial implications of individual posts that remain vacant at different time intervals vacancies for more than three, six, nine or twelve months as the cost would exceed the benefit that could be derived from such an enhanced data capture exercise.
From data supplied by the HSE the Department can view:
- total staffing numbers versus agreed staffing limits by broad staff category such as Medical & Dental, Nursing & Midwifery and Health and Social Care Professional.
- total expenditure on pay for the year to date sorted by core pay, employers PRSI, agency, overtime and staff allowances, which vary significantly between staff categories.
The HSE carry out similar exercises, but do not, to the Department's knowledge, produce rolling estimates of the financial implications of posts remaining unfilled for more than six months.
The methodology used by the Department in its estimates is necessarily high level in nature and is dictated by both the scale of the HSE workforce (~141,000 staff in D/Health funded posts in September 2025) and the nature of the data available. It involves the application of time apportioned annual average payroll costs for broad staff categories to vacancy rates for each of these broad categories.
The quantum of payroll data available will naturally improve, when the current IT projects (IFMS and NISRP) are fully implemented across the entire Health service.
Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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335. To ask the Minister for Health how her Department assesses the effect of long-term vacant posts on service delivery, including waiting lists, emergency department pressures and specialist care capacity; and to detail any measures she intends to introduce to ensure persistent vacancies are identified, monitored and addressed as part of the National Service Plan 2026. [66570/25]
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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As this is a service matter we have the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy.
Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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336. To ask the Minister for Health the policy and operational basis on which the HSE seeks the retrospective recovery of specialist qualification allowances from staff who received the allowance in good faith over an extended period, where the allowance had been approved and paid by management; to confirm whether a formal appeals or waiver process exists for such cases; to outline the legal and HR guidance issued to hospitals on retrospective clawbacks; and to state whether her Department will instruct the HSE to suspend such recovery efforts pending a review of long-standing cases involving administrative error rather than staff fault. [66571/25]
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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As this is a service matter I have asked the HSE to respond to the deputy as soon as possible.
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