On behalf of the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD, I would like to thank you for your query.
The role of the Minister for Health is primarily to deal with legislation, policy, overall budgetary allocation, and corporate governance. The HSE is a separate entity to the Department of Health and as such, the HSE has responsibility for matters relating to the staff within their employ or staff going through the process of recruitment with the HSE's National Recruitment Service.
The department have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy directly on this matter.