475 full-time staff at Dept of Health

MORE THAN 470 people work in the Department of Health, including 112 in the offices of the Minister for Health and five Ministers of State, it has emerged.

The figures are released in the department’s annual report for 2008, which shows a total of 475 people are employed there, including 57 staff in the offices of the Minister for Health and four Ministers of State, and 55 in the office of the Minister of State for Children.

Of the 475, some 52 people work for the Adoption Board, the office of the Children’s Ombudsman, the Disability Appeals office and Health Repayment Scheme Appeals office.

The department’s budget is €498 million, but the report stresses that €315 million was allocated to more than 20 agencies such as the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

The number of “whole-time” employees, at 475, is the same as it was in 2007, but the Opposition has criticised the level of staffing.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said there seemed to be an “excessive number of staff” and he questioned why there had been no real reduction in numbers since the Health Service Executive (HSE) was established.

The McCarthy report on expenditure cuts has recommended a 10 per cent drop in staff numbers over three years, and Dr Reilly said the department’s role now was “only policy formation”, so everything else should be run by the HSE.

A department spokesman insisted, however, there was “no duplication of responsibilities or activities between the two organisations”, but that there was a “close and effective” working relationship.

“The HSE and the department have separate and distinct functions. The department has overall responsibility for health policy while the HSE delivers the services.

“The department supports the HSE to ensure that objectives are delivered in accordance with Government policy.”

The spokesman also pointed to a statement by the department secretary general Michael Scanlan when he attended the Oireachtas health committee earlier this year.

Mr Scanlan said the HSE and department each had their own roles and responsibilities.

“The department’s primary role is to help the Minister for Health and Children fulfil her political accountability for the overall performance of the health system through our parliamentary work,” he said.

The Department of Health receives the largest number of parliamentary questions, accounting for about 20 per cent of the total across 15 departments. It is also frequently criticised over delays in replies to those questions, because of referrals to the HSE.

But the report says replies were prepared to 6,139 parliamentary questions along with 188 responses to Dáil adjournment debates, on issues of the day, and 48 Seanad adjournments.