Be On Call for Ireland scheme
Deputy Kenny described poor experiences for workers recruited through Be On Call for Ireland, including intermittent work and jobseeker’s allowance complications. The Tánaiste said the scheme had not worked as hoped but pointed to direct recruitment and new funding for 15,000 additional health service staff.
The Tánaiste is aware of the situation with the Be On Call for Ireland programme through which an awful lot of people volunteered to go back to work and assist. It is something that everybody thought was a wonderful idea but, unfortunately, the experience of many people called up has been very negative. A healthcare professional in my constituency signed a contract for a number of months but received only intermittent work and since October has had no work. She has had to go onto jobseeker's allowance, which means she must send a letter to the company with the details of the odd day she works. She gets one or two days' work a week. Recently, she was offered two days' work in Donegal, which would have involved a 150 km round trip but she would have received no money for travel expenses. It has been a very negative experience and has created a lot of cynicism among many people who went forward for it. This is very regrettable. This issue needs to be dealt with and affirmative action needs to be taken to reassure these people they are valued by the health service and that they will be given proper contracts of employment.
Comment on this
It is fair to say the scheme did not work out as well as we expected or hoped. Notwithstanding this, more than 5,000 people were recruited to our public health service this year, including 800 doctors, 800 nurses and 1,600 therapists, healthcare professionals and healthcare workers. A lot of direct recruitment has happened in the past eight or nine months. In the budget announced this week, the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, secured funding to recruit and hire directly, and not through an agency, 15,000 additional staff for the health service, which is huge. It will increase our public health workforce by more than 10% in one year. It is a phenomenal amount of money. It could really result in a step change in staffing levels throughout the health service in hospitals and in the community.
Comment on this
Deputy Gould has been indicating but he can only come in once on promised legislation.
