The HSE recruitment freeze has ended today. The health authority has announced it's been lifted after securing a 1.5 billion euro financial package.
HSE CEO Bernard Gloster says it's to be invested in the health service this year and is welcoming this "positive step".
The recruitment freeze was introduced by the HSE in October last year.
It was later extended in November to all staff, excluding consultants, doctors, and new trainee graduate nurses and midwives.
But Sinn Fein's Health spokesperson and Waterford TD David Cullinane is sceptical about the ending of the hiring freeze.
"I don't see anything substantially changing on the back of this announcement from the head of the HSE. Last year and the year before, the HSE was able to recruit three times as many staff as they were able to recruit this year.
"Those severe limitations on recruitment that have been in place now for some time in my view will remain for the rest of the year.
"There was no new funding for any new measures, including cancer services, so I don't see any big change coming from this announcement. The severe restrictions and limitations on recruitment that existed for the best part of this year, in my view, will remain.
"What we do know is that the target that the HSE set to reduce agency spend has not been met and has now been slashed."
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