Results 341-360 of 1,049,851 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:David Norris OR speaker:Richard Bruton OR speaker:Neasa Hourigan OR speaker:Bríd Smith OR speaker:Pádraig O'Sullivan OR speaker:Steven Matthews OR speaker:Martin Browne) in 'Committee meetings'
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Mr. Mulvany has all the calculations so he could do that. He has all the numbers at his fingertips. He could do that calculation and tell us.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Okay.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Okay, and since, is it mid-July that it was lifted?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: Since then, what has been the increase in staffing, or have we tracked that with regard to the data?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Productivity and Savings Task Force: Discussion (18 Sep 2024)
Neasa Hourigan: I have heard people responding to that. We will come to need in a second but I will first return to agency and overtime, which Mr. Gloster just talked about. Perhaps this is a question for the Department as well. I believe we all generally support this push for savings and productivity. Is what Mr. Gloster just described how the number for the staffing ceiling was arrived at?
- 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: 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.