A PLAN to offer a voluntary redundancy programme to surplus administrative staff in the Health Service Executive (HSE) has been stalled due to the state of the public finances.
Department of Finance sources said yesterday they did not see the programme being introduced in the short term because of the multi-million euro costs involved.
Plans for the scheme had been announced last year by Minister for Health Mary Harney, and since then discussions took place between the HSE, the Department of Health and the Department of Finance on the proposal.
The HSE had proposed to the Department of Finance that almost 2,000 people be made redundant, on a voluntary basis over a period of 18 to 24 months. It argued that a voluntary severance scheme was critical to reduce non-frontline staff numbers in the organisation, which had never been rationalised when health boards were merged to form the HSE under the 2004 Health Act.
When asked about the redundancy plan in the Dáil last month Ms Harney said the immediate priority for the Government was to put in place the necessary legislation and other measures to implement the €2 billion public expenditure savings announced on February 3rd. “When this has been dealt with the Government then will consider other matters, including the introduction of a voluntary early retirement scheme for the HSE and other areas of the Government,” she said.
The Sunday Timesreported yesterday that the HSE voluntary redundancy scheme may now be postponed until a wider public service redundancy drive in 2010 or 2011 because the Government does not have money to fund the €300 million programme.
Asked to comment, Seán McGrath, national director of human resources at the HSE, said yesterday: “The HSE believes that a voluntary redundancy package would be absolutely crucial as we integrate our two service pillars, which essentially means that work that’s being duplicated across the country would be no longer required to be done”. He stressed this would have “significant savings for the taxpayer in the medium to long term”.
Fine Gael’s health spokesman Dr James Reilly said even in the current economic climate some redundancies should be offered as it would save money in the long run. The HSE should also look very seriously at how it could redeploy some people in management and administration to frontline positions.
A Department of Finance spokesman said a redundancy scheme for the HSE and other areas was still being considered.