Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 December 2025
518. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health the impact of the 2024–2025 HSE employment control measures on the staffing targets approved for 2024, the number of posts for which recruitment was paused or deferred as a result, and the expected timeline to lift remaining restrictions in order to fill all outstanding development posts. [68912/25]
View answerIn July 2024 a tripartite agreement on an upper limit for Department of Health funded HSE staffing numbers was reached between the Department of Health, the HSE and the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service reform and Digitalisation.
The agreed ceiling was 129,752 Whole Time Equivalents (WTE) and was arrived at by combining the number of WTE in place at the end of December 2023 with total WTE required for new initiatives included in the 2024 Budget settlement.
The agreement also removed the recruitment embargo that was in place at the time. Currently, there are no restrictions on recruitment other than the obligations to stay within WTE and funding limits.
