Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 4 February 2026
981. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether she accepts that the absence of publicly available data on the value of unfilled funded posts within CHO4 represents a deficiency in financial transparency; whether she has directed the HSE to standardise reporting of funded vacancies and associated pay underspends across all CHOs; and when such reporting will be made available to the Oireachtas. [7533/26]
View answer983. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health whether she will commit to publishing, on an annual basis, a national breakdown, by CHO of funded posts, filled posts, vacancies, and associated pay allocations, in order to allow the Houses of the Oireachtas to assess workforce planning effectiveness under Sláintecare and the National Health Workforce Plan. [7535/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 981 and 983 together.
As outlined in the HSE’s 2026 National Service Plan, with effect from 2026, responsibility for the recruitment of staff and the management of pay budgets is now the direct responsibility of the Regional Executive Officers (REO) who manage the Regional Health Authorities (RHA).
Under this model the RHA are each assigned an overall pay budget and a recruitment ceiling which the REO will use to manage their staffing needs to meet D/Health’s policy aims.
The RHA will be responsible for managing their own staffing needs based on local insight and knowledge. This RHA-centred approach means that services previously supplied by the CHO have since October 2024 been reassigned to the RHA - for example, services previously undertaken by CHO 04 are now undertaken by the Southwest RHA.
