Any redundancies within HSE will be voluntary, says Harney

ANY redundancies within the Health Service Executive will be voluntary, Health Minister Mary Harney insisted yesterday.

Ms Harney was responding to a newspaper report that the HSE had proposed to the Government that 200 senior management and 800 clerical and administrative posts should go as part of a voluntary early retirement scheme.

But Ms Harney said it was too early to speculate on the plan as a review of staffing levels in the health service was continuing.

“It is far too early to speculate about what might happen, what the costs might be on a once-off basis and what the ongoing savings might be if we were to reduce the cost of administration and management and divert the resources to clinic sources,” she said.

Any redundancy plan would have to be approved by the board of the HSE and Government with redundancies voluntary and staff redeployed where possible, she said.

“If there are staff that are superfluous to requirements in one area then they should be redeployed to another area and, if that’s not appropriate, then at that point we will look at the possibility of a voluntary redundancy programme, but only at that point,” she said.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Employment Mary Coughlan confirmed on the order of business in the Dáil yesterday that the HSE was submitting an outline proposal for “voluntary early retirement” to the Department of Health and Children.

Replying to Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, Ms Coughlan pointed out the matter had not yet been considered by the Government. The cost of the implementation of the proposal would be about €30 million.

Ms Harney said it was far too early to speculate on the cost of the restructuring on what ongoing savings might be achieved.

She said it was believed the health authority had too many staff at administrative and management levels.

Ms Harney was anxious to ensure, however, the appropriate staff levels were achieved in both clinical and support areas of the health service.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said a submission had not been made to his department in relation to the proposed job cuts in the HSE.

Ms Harney said it was “a matter of general principle” that administration posts were kept to an absolute minimum and that frontline services were a priority.

Mr Lenihan said he would have to examine the proposals before deciding on the issue.

Labour spokeswoman on health Jan O’Sullivan insisted that a carefully designed and properly negotiated reform package is necessary to make the HSE function in a coherent fashion.

“A rushed or botched package could make the situation even worse,” she warned.

Reacting to the reports last night, Peter McLoone, the general secretary of IMPACT, said any suggestion of redundancies in the health service would send a very negative message.

“The Department of Finance would take a negative view on this not least because if you offer this deal it will do nothing other than cost money. If you are saying to people you do not have money to invest in resources for the health service then pay out €30m in redundancy packages it is sending out a bad signal.”