Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
995. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Health her Department’s assessment of the risks created by the HSE’s inability to record the duration for which funded posts remain unfilled; the way these gaps are reflected in national workforce plans submitted under the Public Service Reform framework; and the steps she is taking to ensure the HSE’s workforce data infrastructure supports evidence-based planning. [71959/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe HSE provide the Department of Health with a range of reports detailing staffing levels and associated pay costs across the HSE. These reports include the HSE’s monthly staff census, the monthly Limits Report detailing HSE recruitment against agreed recruitment limits, monthly pay data by category of pay cost and site, and regular responses to ad hoc data requests.
The data provided in these reports makes it possible to carryout in depth analysis of actual staff growth and pay costs. It also makes it possible to make high-level assessments of where staffing levels and pay costs are not meeting expectations. This in turn allows the Department of Health to engage productively with both the HSE and the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service reform and Digitalisation on matters of workforce planning.
To facilitate additional analysis of staffing pattern within the HSE, Department officials are currently engaging with HSE colleagues in the development of reports that will detail the progression of offers of employment through the HSE’s recruitment process.
Long-term, the completion of the roll-out of the National integrated Staff Records and Pay (NiSRP) system across the whole of the HSE will be a further development in the provision of real time information on staffing levels and pay. It is excepted, that the additional data will facilitate further analysis of what is driving the HSE’s staffing growth and pay costs and what is restricting this growth.
Similar to the above, the workforce reporting requests received by the Department of Health require it to detail actual staffing levels and pay costs.
These reports do not request data on unfilled posts, or provide estimates of notional costs that were not in fact incurred, that would be dependent on many variables such as category or staff, their grade, the number of days that would make costing impractical with costs exceeding any possible benefits to be derived from requesting this extremely complex calculation, which changes on a daily basis.
