CIVIL SERVICE:THE GOVERNMENT has approved the targeted voluntary early retirement scheme for staff in the Health Service Executive (HSE) which has been under consideration for several months, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has said.
In his Budget speech, the Minister said he believed it was essential such schemes be expanded in a targeted manner to other areas of the public service where surplus staff were identified. Mr Lenihan did not give details of how the scheme would work in the HSE and said discussions were under way in relation to its development.
He said such a scheme would initially be targeted at "surplus middle management and administrative staff, but may be extended to other surplus staff".
Minister for Health Mary Harney said last night the voluntary redundancy programme "may well" also cover laboratory staff, in line with controversial HSE proposals to rationalise services.
She said such rationalisation was needed, but that consultation with staff was required.
A recent HSE-commissioned report maintained that a new network of fewer laboratories with a smaller technical/support workforce could provide a better and more cost-effective service for patients and clinicians.
Mr Lenihan said the Cabinet had decided to conduct a focused review of public sector numbers in all branches of Government "to assess whether the resources are being fully deployed in an efficient and effective manner, and what economies can be made".
He said this decision would be implemented in November when the report of the Task Force on the Public Service, established by the Taoiseach earlier this year to prepare an action plan for the public service, was received.
"Our public servants - teachers, doctors and nurses, often of the highest calibre - enjoy very favourable pay and working conditions by international standards. As economic conditions worsen, those enjoying protected status need to contribute in a broader sense to the greater good of the wider economy," he said.
Mr Lenihan said the lack of flexibility in reallocating resources to the areas of greatest need "had to change". He had found this to be one of the most limiting factors in his short time as Minister.
"Where there are clear staff surpluses in certain areas, or where policy priorities change, staff numbers must be correspondingly reduced or reassigned," he said.
The Minister said that since the establishment of the HSE, the number of whole-time equivalent staff had increased by 12 per cent. He said the number of administrative staff had risen by some 1,900. He did not give figures on numbers of staff who could be involved in the redundancy programme. HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm suggested in recent weeks that up to 1,000 staff could go.