Taoiseach unable to say if HSE will be able to hire 10,000 staff this year
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The Taoiseach has refused to answer on whether the HSE will be able to hire 10,000 staff this year after recordings emerged of Department of Health staff slating the target.
Reported in the over the weekend, a recording of a private meeting revealed "a very dysfunctional relationship between the Department of Health and the HSE," according to Labour leader Alan Kelly during leader's questions.
"To be frank, the commentary was quite derogatory," he added.
"Officials in the Department of Health are saying that the idea we will recruit 10,000 people this year, and I quote from one of the officials, is: 'batshit', that's what they think about the recruitment of 10,000 people that we need in our health service."
Mr Kelly pressed the Taoiseach on whether 10,000 staff were being recruited this year was possible.
Responding, Micheál Martin said: "The article is referring to a secretly recorded transcript of the meeting, which has its own issues because I do believe on a general level, public servants and people more generally are entitled to brainstorm in meetings.
"I think it's a very basic right."
The Taoiseach added there had been record recruitment in the HSE in the last two years at 12,500 people, and the agency has to hire 9,500 just to stand still.
That is in addition to the 4,000 recruited for testing and tracing, and Covid vaccination teams, Mr Martin added.
"That said I'm still impatient for reform and for progress and in terms of an integrated financial management system that is required and needed in the HSE."
Mr Kelly replied that the Taoiseach didn't answer his question: "Will the 10,000 people be recruited or not?" he repeated.
"These are political targets. Are you going to meet them?
"There are targets that are given out to people as answers. So in fairness, we can only take information that's given to us."
The Taoiseach said he wasn't present in the meeting, "but not all the material in it was accurate. Politicians didn't say recruitment figures at all."
"We didn't set any recruitment figures, the transcript suggested we did," he said.
"It was presented to a health committee HSE said they would recruit 16,000 in 2021.
"This year, they said it would recruit initially, when they made their bid, 10,000. The HR team are now saying that they think, given the current labour market situation, it could be 5,500, but they're trying to trump that. So discussions are now under way between the department heads and the HSE in respect of utilising the funding which will not be used for that 10,000 on waiting list initiatives and other initiatives within the health service."