Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 April 2021
53. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to increase staffing levels across the public service in key areas such as health, education, higher education and training in which clear deficits in capacity have been revealed in the context of the Covid-19 crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20472/21]
View answer124. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he has or is planning to carry out an audit on staffing levels and facilities across the public service in key areas such as health, education, higher education and training in which clear deficits in capacity have been revealed in the context of the Covid-19 crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20473/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 53 and 124 together.
It is a key responsibility of each Minister and Department to manage expenditure within the agreed allocations and, in order to provide enhanced scope for Departments to manage staffing levels and composition within their allocated financial resources, a policy of delegated sanction in relation to staff management was introduced in 2015. Since then, it has been possible to provide for sustainable increases in Government expenditure, which have allowed for the recruitment of additional staff across the public service.
Between end 2014 and end 2019, overall serving numbers in full-time equivalent terms increased from 293,346 to 339,258, an increase of 15.7%. This included additional recruitment in key sectors, such as Health and Education. Health increased by 18,323 (18%) to 119,817 and Education by 15,785 (16.8%) to 109,830 during this period.
In 2020, numbers in the Health sector increased to 124,816, a 4% increase over end-2019 and in the Education sectors, overall numbers increased by 3% to 113,336 in the same period. This demonstrates the ongoing commitment to allocate funding for recruitment of staff in order to provide vital frontline service provision to respond to Covid-19.
For 2021, almost €76 billion of funding has been allocated to core expenditure programmes. Indeed, core current expenditure is to grow by €3.8 billion or just over 6% in 2021, driven by an increase of almost €1.9 billion or 10.7% in Health that will support the acceleration of Sláintecare. This additional funding in Health will support recruitment of additional staff to bring the overall number in the Health Vote to over 137,600 at end-year. Overall public service numbers are estimated to be around 367,100 for the end of 2021, an increase of almost 5% over end-2020.
This approach is consistent with the goal of sustainable growth in the level of public resources and staff numbers to ensure that public services can continue to be delivered effectively and efficiently.
In relation to the composition of public service staffing levels, a significant level of analysis has been undertaken as part of the spending review process in recent years which included work across the key labour intensive sectors, health and education. These papers have contributed to the building of an evidence base on a key area of expenditure and complements workforce planning ongoing across Departments and sectors. Further work in this regard is being carried out as part of the 2021 Spending Review process.
Questions Nos. 54 to 57, inclusive, answered orally.
