asked the Minister for Health the progress to date in employing the 2,900 additional persons in the health services in respect of whom a sum of £10 million was allocated in the job creation programme of last January's budget.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Job Creation Programme.
35.
Information on the situation on 30th September will not be available for a few days. On 31st August 2,094 posts were either filled or persons had been selected for appointment to them.
I presume we may take it that the moneys allocated in order to provide a total of 2,900 jobs will be spent on creating the additional 900 jobs before then end of the financial year?
I do not understand the question.
A total of £10 million was allocated in last January's budget to create 2,900 additional posts in the health services. The Minister's reply indicated that so far a total of 2,094 posts have been created and filled. Is that correct?
Yes.
I am asking for an assurance that the additional 900 posts will be filled before the end of the financial year.
We will endeavour not alone to fill those but to fill many more as well. The Deputy must not confuse himself in this regard. Of those 2,094 jobs some considerable portion of them would have arisen from the previous allocation and some from job creation undertaken by me. As regards the jobs still outstanding, they will come under both headings. There will still be jobs to come out of last year's budget allocation and there will be jobs to come arising out of action I have taken.
How much extra money did the Minister get from the Minister for Finance for job creation?
So far we have been able to meet it out of the current budget.
Did the Minister get any extra money?
Not so far.
My question asked how many of the 2,900 additional jobs in respect of which £10 million were allocated had been filled. The Minister brought in an extraneous suggestion that he has allocated additional moneys for the job creation programme.
I have endeavoured to explain to the Deputy that 2,094 jobs have been created. Some of those jobs arose out of a programme initiated by my predecessor; some of them out of action initiated by me.
Financed by what?
Out of my current on-going departmental expenditure.
How many of the 2,094 jobs were created——
I would say about 1,500 but it would be very difficult to identify them, because we are dealing here with a great number of institutions, health boards, hospitals and various bodies which we are encouraging to take on employees. I am doing the same as my predecessor in that regard. If an institution took on a man it is very difficult to identify whether they took him on under my predecessor's action or mine.
Does the Minister accept that the money was voted by the former Minister and that there was no additional moneys involved relating to any new programme——
No additional moneys have so far been required this year because it was possible to contain anything that has been done within the departmental Estimate or the capital allocation.
In other words, all of the jobs that have been filled were filled because of the £10 million allocated last January. The Minister has not provided any additional money.
That is not so. I have already indicated to the Deputy that of the 2,094 jobs provided some of them arose from action taken by the former Minister and some out of action taken by me. Both are paid for out of the same pool, either the capital or the current Estimate for the Department of Health.
Out of the money provided in the budget last January?
I will not allow an argument. There are many important questions to be answered and we do not have time to waste on trivia.
Has the Minister taken any action in his Department to create any of the 20,000 extra jobs promised by his Government?
About 3,000 have already been created.
From where has the money come?
At the moment the expenditure necessary on those new jobs is capably met out of my Department's Estimate.
They were not extra jobs: they had already been provided for. I am asking the Minister if he has made any provision——
They are extra jobs.
Do not take away his image.
The Minister just said that it was from the money allocated to his Department and that was allocated by us.
The money allocated by my predecessor was not fully taken up——
How could it be in half a year?
Will the Deputy have a bit of manners? I am trying to explain the situation.
This is developing into an argument which I will not allow. There are a number of Deputies waiting for replies to their questions which are equally important. I am calling the next question.
May I ask a final supplementary question? Of the 2,094 jobs which he says have been created, could the Minister indicate how many have been created from the £10 million provided in last year's budget?