This article is from page 9 of the 2012-06-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
THE HSE have had difficulty filling nursing posts in the mid-west area which includes counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary.
That is according to Regional Director of Operations, HSE West, John Hennessy who was responding to criticism that retired staff continue to be employed within the HSE on a part-time basis.
Mr Hennessy maintained that staff were only re-employed in certain circumstances and for a short period of time. He added, “When we had permanent nursing posts in the mid-west we had difficulty finding someone to take up the post.”
Clare County Councillor Tom McNamara (FF) criticised the HSE for its re-hiring practices.
“There are people working in the HSE that have retired in the last five years taking posts that could be filled by young graduates,” he said.
“This [practice] is forcing young people out of the country, while these people’s pensions are not touched because they can work a day or two to bring them up to their former wage before it is touched.”
He proposed that the HSE take new people into the health service on a 12-month contract instead to cover any gaps in the system.
Francis Rogers, Assistant National Director of Human Resources, said it was HSE policy not to rehire people on pensions.
“In circumstances where we found ourselves having to re-hire pensioners it was only in extreme circumstances where we do this. This would also be for a very short period and only where a very specific specialist was needed,” he said.
“There is no financial gain in this to the pensioner. During this period their pension is abated. It is an issue we very carefully monitor.”
This week Fine Gael Senator Tony Mulcahy proposed that selective redundancy be used in the public sector. “The problem is we are losing people we want to keep and we are keeping people we probably need to lose. We really are going to have to get the unions engaged on that and be supportive of that. I am 100 per cent supportive of the Croke Park Agreement because in fairness they [public sector staff] are working very hard,” he told The Clare People .
“But like everything else there is dead weight in a lot of organisations that has to be picked out and say no you don’t serve a purpose anymore and you are not doing what we need you to do and those are areas we have to tackle.”