Vol. 444 No. 5
139 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if he has received a request for a third neuro-surgeon at the Cork Regional Hospital; and when his approval will be given for such an appointment in view of the fact that there are only two neurosurgeons in the Cork area which is not enough to deal with the workload that they have and a lot of their time is spent dealing with life threatening problems of the brain and the spine.
Under my Department's current personnel policy, each agency has responsibility for identifying manpower requirements. Proposals for the filling of new and replacement permanent posts are reviewed on a regular basis by my Department. This review is undertaken having regard to service and personnel criteria in the context of the priority afforded to each post by the agency concerned and with particular regard to the availability of financial resources.
Proposals in respect of the post referred to by the Deputy have not been included by the Southern Health Board in its most recent manpower submission to my Department.
