Results 301-320 of 1,058,407 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Seán Ó Fearghaíl OR speaker:Patrick Costello OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Róisín Shortall OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill)
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: May I ask a follow-up there? What does "reduce" mean? Does it mean to make those people permanent and bring them within the HSE family or does it mean to get rid of them?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Will that agency conversion be a long-term project? It seems we are staffing a significant number of long-term jobs.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: My question is not so much about the time it takes to do it. I presume there are more than 500 staff in this position.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: That is for the Department to answer, then.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: That is very clear. Will the Department respond to that point? Will it also respond as regards its position on the conversion of agency staff?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: The Department of Health is identifying particular posts that have a high cost----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: But units that have a high-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: We have gone far beyond stepping in for maternity leave or stepping in for sick leave.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: We are now in a position where we have people who have been going in and out to work for maybe 18 months, they are fully integrated into the team and they are still on the agency's books.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Okay. Is that tracked into the Department's decision making? Is the Department making a commitment to an ongoing addressing of the issue of converting agency staff to full-time health service staff?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Maybe Ms Kenna can speak to this. Some 500 is great but we are probably talking about thousands at this rate. Is there a recognition and a commitment that this is an ongoing process?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: What would be the highest level of agency use that Ms Kenna has come across in a particular department?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Wow. There was 56% reliance on agency staff.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: So that is 900 total?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: In the push for productivity and savings which, again, we all support, I would not like to see a slippage in the standards of the working life and workers' rights within the HSE. I noticed that when we removed the recruitment ban, the IMO made comments about the staff ceiling and asked if that was a proxy for a recruitment ban. I thought a lot about the fact that so many non-consultant...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: I ask the Department to respond.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: I thought it was ten.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Ten minutes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: I raised the HSCP issue with Mr. Gloster at the break. I endorse the campaign that is under way at the moment. We had a situation in the Department where it was doctors who were represented on management and we had a battle to get nurses represented and to have a director of nursing. Then we had a battle to get HSCPs represented in management in the Department. Finally, that was achieved....
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Róisín Shortall: Does Ms Kenna have a ballpark figure on that?