Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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678. To ask the Minister for Health for details on the pay and numbers strategy, which Connolly Hospital healthcare workers say will add an additional six months to recruitment processes and undermines patient safety; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42421/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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There has been an unprecedented level of investment by this Government in the health service workforce in recent years, with the growth in the number of staff recruited in 2023 being the highest since the foundation of the HSE

As of August 2024, there were 27,901 more staff working in our health service than there were at the beginning of 2020. That’s a 23% increase which includes 9,325 nurses and midwives; 4,092 health and social care professionals; and 3,330 doctors and dentists.

The HSE was funded to recruit 6,000 staff in 2023, but hired 8,239, meaning it exceeded its funded workforce targets by more than 2,200 staff.

While the increase in our workforce has been incredibly positive and has enabled significant improvements in service delivery and reductions in waiting times for patients, it is important that the HSE operate within budgeted levels and that prudent controls are in place to ensure the workforce growth is managed in an affordable and sustainable manner

In July of this year Government approved a two-year agreement on Health Expenditure for 2024 and 2025, which provided an additional €1.5 billion in funding for the health service in 2024, and a further €1.2 billion for Existing Level of Service (ELS) in 2025.

This agreement allowed for the regularisation of 2,000 posts that the HSE had recruited which, up to now, were not funded, and a further 2,000 posts recruited temporarily to support services during the COVID-19 pandemic, and which are still in place and now permanent.

This agreement has also facilitated finalisation of the HSE’s Pay and Numbers Strategy for 2024, in which there is now a new approved maximum employment ceiling for all Hospitals and CHOs within the HSE of 129,753 (excludes Disability) in 2024.

These newly agreed limits and the regularization of previously unfunded posts has removed the obstacle to normal recruitment and replacement in the remainder of the workforce, resulting in the immediate lifting of the recruitment pause.

Each Health Regions/National Services have each been provided with their own limits in which to operate and each Regional Executive Officer/National Director will have the ability to prioritise recruitment and replacement within their approved number as appropriate

In addition, provision has been made for the HSE to recruit an additional 4,210 WTE in 2024 (3,310 funded by Dept. of Health and 900WTE funded by DCEDIY).