The six health regions countrywide will each be given autonomy to employ staff within an overall ceiling, under new changes.
The health service will now have an approved workforce of 129,753 whole-time equivalent personnel.
A controversial pause on most recruitment has been in place in the Health Service Executive since last November.
However the organisation’s chief executive, Bernard Gloster, told senior managers earlier this week that agreement had been reached on a new pay and numbers strategy for the health service.
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He said overall the number of healthcare staff had increased by 25 per cent since 2019.
Under the new arrangements about 2,000 posts which were filled last year without funding being in place as well as a further 2,000 positions which were originally put in place temporarily during the Covid-19 pandemic will be retained.
Mr Gloster said that under the new strategy, each of the six HSE health regions and each national service will be given its own specified staffing level.
Within this number, each will have the authority to prioritise posts to be filled.
However, health regions will not have any autonomy over pay levels, the HSE said on Wednesday.
Each region will also be given a spending limit for the use of agency staff and overtime.
“Given that each health region or national service will have the authority to manage its own staff allocation within the approved ceiling, they will not be affected by challenges should they occur in other parts of the organisation”, Mr Gloster said.
He said that a health region or national service will be able to prioritise filling vacancies that may arise within the allocation. He said they could also reprioritise should they wish to do so and to “remain adaptive” within overall national policy and guidance.
Mr Gloster said a control mechanism would be put in place to ensure that the staffing allocation was not breached.
“Should this occur, the regional chief executive officer will be clear on the steps for correction.”
He said that the overall approved staffing ceiling for the HSE was set at the number of occupied paid positions in place at the end of December 2023 which was 125,420 whole-time equivalent posts.
In addition, there would be about 2,300 posts for new developments this year as well as about 1,000 personnel taken on as part of a conversion of agency staff.
There will also be about 1,000 posts allocated to accommodate the move of hospice staff who previously worked for State-funded organisations to direct State employment.
The new overall staffing limit of 129,753 does not include pre-registration nursing and midwifery students.
In a statement, Mr Gloster said the reforms represented “a positive step, which means the HSE now has a two-year line of sight of the budget and the workforce to work within”.
Over the weekend Mr Gloster also confirmed he has received a report carried out by former chief justice Frank Clark into the death of Aoife Johnston at University Hospital Limerick last December.
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