3,500 HSE posts approved since January - Drumm

The Chief Executive of the HSE Professor Brendan Drumm today told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children that there is no recruitment embargo operating in the health service.

He re-iterated that the recruitment pause introduced in September 2007 had been lifted before the end of the year.

Professor Drumm said more than 3,500 posts had been approved since January.

Yesterday the HSE and IMPACT agreed a negotiation process to resolve their row over staffing levels.

However union members said they would continue their industrial action until there is a breakthrough.