HSE jobs for life

Dara Gantly explores the implications of Mary Harney’s remark that heads would roll in the HSE if it were a private company

The Minister for Health has stated that if the HSE was a private company, people would have lost their jobs over the most recent scandals in the health service. Last weekend, Mary Harney conceded that it “hugely antagonises and annoys the public” that no one was ever seen to be fired for not doing their job, but that job security was a feature of the public service. Cold comfort for the 13.7 per cent of the workforce currently unemployed, antagonised and very, very annoyed.
Minister Harney’s widely reported remarks on the HSE were in reference to the number of children who died either in care or after coming into contact with social services, but she could easily have been talking about those pregnant women told in error that they had miscarried. The Minister placed much of the blame for such difficulties in health and social services on ‘legacy issues’ inherited by the Executive.
She stressed that job security was a feature of the public service, and that positions in the HSE were ultimately a matter to be decided on by its board and CEO.
But Ms Harney does have the power, under the Health Act 2004, to remove all the members of the HSE Board from office if they do not comply with a direction of the Minister, or if the Minister believes the Board’s functions are not being performed ‘in an effective manner’. She can also appoint someone to conduct an independent review of any matter if, again, she feels that the Board is not performing as it should.
In the interview, Ms Harney defended the performance of the HSE, saying there was ‘no doubt’ the organisation was doing a better job than the old health boards, and was far more transparent. She did not directly mention the €2 million the Executive gave to Siptu for the SKILL (Securing Knowledge Intra Lifelong Learning) Programme.
The scheme was established in late 2004 and is focused on the design and delivery of FETAC Level 3, 4, 5 & 6 accredited programmes for support staff and line managers/supervisors within the HSE. Funded directly by the Department of Finance, it offers 4,000 places for learners per annum, including 1,000 healthcare assistant places through the Centres of Nursing and Midwifery Education.
It is understood that the HSE’s annual report will reveal improprieties in the programme, with an internal audit unable to account for €2.35 million paid to the trade union between 2002 and 2009. With talk of foreign trips, expensive meals and the like, are we in danger of re-entering FÁS country?
But back to the 13.7 per cent unemployed. They are still antagonised and even more annoyed now that they know the children of several senior managers within the HSE have been appointed to temporary posts without the jobs having been advertised. The Opposition has called it nepotism – jobs for the boys, girls and kids: the Executive has defended the hirings, stating that they were all above-board and the most cost-effective way of filling the posts.
We can forgive an organisation the burden of ‘legacy issues’, but not the creation of new legacies on a weekly basis. These are not the things the HSE should be remembered for. If they are, then perhaps the Minister should revisit Section 14 of the Health Act 2004.