HSE contracts - Cynical stalling we can’t afford

CYNICAL is the only word to describe the Health Service Executive strategy of telling social workers, consultants and other frontline personnel they have been successful at job interviews but then not proceeding to sign their employment contracts.

For several months, the HSE has continued to interview applicants for jobs as if the hiring process designed to bypass the embargo on recruitment in the public service was in full swing.

But in reality it stands accused of playing a game of smoke and mirrors. Because while the executive continues to go through the motions of the statutory recruitment process, people are not being brought over the line in terms of actually giving them jobs.