Government accused over health workers

Opposition parties have accused the Government of deliberating leaking a report revealing there are almost 6,500 unauthorised workers in the health service in its attempt to justify future job-shedding.

Fine Gael spokeswoman on Health, Olivia Mitchell, said the Government could not have been unaware of such widescale abuse of the system.

“All these jobs did not just suddenly appear. Nor are the health boards operating in a vacuum. The Department of Health knows exactly what is happening at health board level,” she said.