Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 2 Mar 1994

Vol. 439 No. 6

Written Answers. - Job Sharing Scheme.

Frank Crowley

Question:

135 Mr. Crowley asked the Minister for Health if he intends to curb current job-sharing arrangements for nurses in hospitals in County Cork; if he has satisfied himself that the Southern Health Board is allowing full participation in the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

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 health agency and must necessarily depend on the demands of the service.

Accordingly; the management of the Southern Health Board has responsibility for the operation and maintenance of job-sharing arrangements amongst the Board's nursing and other employees. The Board has indicated that it is fully committed to facilitate both now and in the future as many staff as possible with job-sharing subject to service demands.

The most recent annual Health Services Personnel Census carried out by my Department shows that 407 nurses were employed in a job-sharing capacity by the Southern Health Board at 31 December, 1992. Over 200 more nurses were job-sharing in the Board at that date than at 31 December, 1988. This illustrates the progress that the Southern Health Board has made in terms of expanding job-sharing opportunities. I would like to acknowledge the Board's efforts in this regard.

I would like to add in relation to the operation of the job-sharing scheme more generally that I am committed to encouraging 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.