Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 October 2018
435. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Health his views on whether the provision of health care is being undermined by reduced salaries for those recruited since 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43648/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government remains committed to the recruitment and retention of health service personnel. Notwithstanding recruitment and retention challenges, the number of consultants and nurses employed in the public health services have increased overall.
The Public Service Pay Commission recently concluded a review in respect of key health service grades, including nurses and midwives and consultants and its Report was published on 4 September. For consultants, in terms of pay, it identified the two-tier pay system as being one of number of factors affecting recruitment and found that the differential in pay between pre-existing and new entrant consultants is greater than that for other categories of public servants. The Commission proposed that the Parties to the Public Service Stability Agreement jointly consider what further measures could be taken, over time, to address this difficulty.
In terms of nurses and midwives, it found the recruitment and retention issues to be multi-factorial and not solely due to pay. It recommended increases to a number of allowances and reducing the time to progress to senior staff nurse. These will benefit approximately 18,000 nurses.
Separate to this, agreement has also been reached on the new entrant salary scale for those recruited into the public service since 2012. This will benefit all health care staff who are signed up to the Public Service Stability Agreement. It is hoped that this range of measures will ultimately assist in improving recruitment to the public health service.
