Recruitment target of 10,000 healthcare staff ‘very, very challenging’ — Watt

The department of health’s secretary general and Paul Reid, the HSE chief executive, appeared before an Oireachtas committee this afternoon

Paul Reid and Robert Watt appeared before the Oireachtas Health Committee earlier today on the topic of Sláintecare and reform of the health system. Picture: RollingNews.ie

Robert Watt, the secretary general at the department of health, has told an Oireachtas committee that the budgeted recruitment target of 10,000 new healthcare staff this year would be “very, very challenging” to meet.

Speaking this afternoon, Watt said that half the target was more likely, despite 10,000 new staff being signed off on and budgeted for in the new National Service Plan.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid told the same committee that a correction ...