Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2020
134. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Health when the position of the Director of the Health Protection and Surveillance Centre will be filled with a full-time consultant contract with the relative pay and conditions (details supplied) [33309/20]
View answerI, my Department and the HSE are committed to the early introduction of a new framework for public healthcare, as recommended in the Crowe Horwath Report on Public Health Apecialists and as provided for in the Programme for Government. The Report recommended the awarding of consultant status to public health specialists who meet defined criteria. Consultant status is also consistent with the roles envisaged for public health specialists in Slaintecare and Professor Scally’s Report on the National Screening Service ('CervicalCheck') under a new public health framework.
I recognise that Public Health Directors and Specialists, at national and regional level, are leading the State’s response to the pandemic and that this has accelerated implementation of many of the Crowe Horwath recommendations. The Department and the HSE are currently working intensively to finalise the body of work necessary in order to engage with DPER on the matter of approval for a public health model that would include consultant posts. This would include the Director of the Health Protection and Surveillance Centre post.
