On 1 November 2010 I announced that the Government had approved a voluntary early retirement (VER) scheme and a voluntary redundancy (VR) scheme for certain categories of staff in the public health service. The purpose of the schemes is to achieve a permanent reduction in the numbers employed in the public health sector from 2011 onwards and to facilitate health service reform.
I understand from information provided by the HSE that there were 3,596 applications from eligible grades by the closing date of 19 November 2010. I also understand that of that total 2,310 were from the Management/Administration category while the balance of 1,286 was from the General Support category. A total of 2,586 eligible applications were received from HSE employees. The breakdown on a HSE area basis is as follows:
Dublin Mid Leinster: 468;
Dublin North East: 494;
West: 840;
South: 760;
Not linked: 24.
It should be noted that the information on the number of applications is still provisional as the data is currently being validated by HSE. Based on the Census return for the end September 2010 the total number of employees in the Management/Administration category is 19,778 while the General Support category accounts for 13,871 individuals.
