Department of Health to shed 60 jobs

HSE and voluntary bodies to suffer a loss of 1,500 posts this year alone

A TOTAL of 60 posts in the Department of Health are to go over the next two years as part of the Government’s plans to reduce numbers on the State’s payroll. A further 60 positions are to be cut in non-commercial State-sponsored bodies operating in the health sector, figures released last week by Minister for Health Mary Harney show.

However, as reported last month, the largest cutbacks in health service numbers will come in the HSE and voluntary bodies where more than 1,500 posts are to go this year and for each of the next two years, under the terms of a new employment control agreement reached between the Department of Health and the Department of Finance.

The staffing reductions will mainly come about through the implementation of the Government’s moratorium on recruitment and the application of the incentivised early retirement scheme. Ms Harney told the Dáil last week that 60 posts would go in her department as part of the net target reduction in staffing levels in the years 2010-2012.

However, she said there was no breakdown, by grade category, of staff included in the target reduction. There are currently just under 440 personnel working in the Department of Health.

“The Government has made it clear that a critical part of its strategy to restore the public finances is to achieve sustainability in the cost of delivering public services relative to State revenues. To help achieve this goal, it will be necessary to restructure and reorganise the public service and to reduce public service numbers over the coming years,” Ms Harney stated.

“This requires that the moratorium on recruitment and promotion in the health service will continue to apply until the numbers have fallen to the level set out in the Employment Control Framework for the health sector. The Employment Control Framework . . . provides that there will be a net reduction in employment to 2012. This includes a target reduction in numbers in 2010,” she said.

An unpublished internal report drawn up for the Government in recent months found that some staff at the Department of Health had “little or nothing to do” while colleagues were overwhelmed with work. The report said management appeared reluctant to deal with the problem.

The report was compiled under the Organisational Review Programme (ORP), a public service modernisation initiative under the auspices of the Department of the Taoiseach.

The Minster said last week that an action plan drawn up by the Department of Health on foot of the report would be submitted shortly to Government.

The Department of Health has told the HSE that under the terms of the employment control directive, the numbers employed should fall to 108,833 by the end of the year.