HSE recruitment freeze saves €70m

The Health Service Executive has made savings of around €70m in September alone as a result of its recruitment freeze.

According to the Sunday Business Post newspaper, €12m of this was saved in staff costs alone.

The HSE announced that it was putting a recruitment freeze in place in a bid to reduce a budget overrun of €200m.

The initial plan was for the freeze, along with spending cuts across a range of services, was to be implemented for a month.

However, health bosses have now extended that deadline and it is thought that the cutbacks will remain in place until the end of the year.