Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 8 Mar 1994

Vol. 440 No. 1

Written Answers. - Health Service Job-Sharing Scheme.

Michael Creed

Question:

153 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Health if he has satisfied himself with the extent of the availability of job-sharing in the nursing profession; if he has any comparable figures in this regard for public, private and voluntary hospitals; 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.

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 and the health board sectors reflect the overall position for the health service as a whole. Thus 678 or 8.5 per cent of nurses in the voluntary hospital sector and 1,693 or 9 per cent of nurses in the health board sector were employed in a job-sharing capacity at 31 December 1992. Information on job-sharing numbers in the third non public hospital category sought by the Deputy is not available as my Department has no responsibility for employment policy in hospitals in that category.

The increasing success of the job-sharing scheme in the health service 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

Year	Total
December 1989	1,440
December 1990	1,768
December 1991	2,169
December 1992	2,526

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.