Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 24 Feb 1994

Vol. 439 No. 4

Written Answers. - Job-Sharing Scheme.

Pat Rabbitte

Question:

104 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Health the provision, if any, he has made to extend job sharing facilities for nursing staff; whether voluntary hospitals are implementing the provision made by his Department; and if he will provide statistics to illustrate the position.

Minister for Health (Mr. Howlin)

The job-sharing scheme for the health service was introduced in 1985. The terms of the scheme provide that the operation and maintenance of job-sharing arrangements are a matter for the management of each agency and must necessarily depend on the demands of the service.

The most recent annual Health Services Personnel Census carried out by my Department shows that there were 2,526 nurses employed throughout the health service in a job-sharing capacity at 31 December 1992. This represents nearly 9 per cent of the total nurses employed. The position in the voluntary hospital sector reflects the overall position for the health service with 678 or 8.5 per cent of nurses in that sector employed in a job-sharing capacity. The increasing success of the scheme in providing both an attractive alternative to full-time working arrangements and greater employment opportunities for nurses can be gauged from the following figures which show the annual increase in the total number of nurses availing of the scheme for the period December 1989 to December 1992.

Total Number of Nurses Job-Sharing

December 1989	1,440
December 1990	1,767
December 1991	2,169
December 1992	2,526

I am committed to encourage health agencies to allow the scheme to be used to the fullest extent possible. I recently wrote to the chief executive officers of the health boards exhorting them to adopt as flexible an approach as possible in relation to accommodating staff wishing to avail of the scheme. Within the context of overall personnel policy for the health services for 1994, details of which will be circulated to health agencies soon, it is my intention to emphasise the positive aspects of the job-sharing scheme and to ask each health agency to make every effort to ensure that the opportunities for greater participation in the scheme that exist are fully exploited.