THE HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE spent €92m hiring staff from recruitment agencies last year, according to new figures published this afternoon by Fine Gael.

The spending came on having to hire agency staff and locum doctors over the course of the year, and was largely accrued because of the public service recruitment ban which meant that the HSE could not directly hire new staff.

Almost 10% of the spending was accrued in Beaumont Hospital, which spent almost €9m on hiring agency staff, while St James’ Hospital spent €8.5m on outside employers.

Fine Gael’s health spokesperson James Reilly said the cost of hiring agency staff had to be addressed before the HSE was forced into cutting front-line services, a move which now seems likely after Mary Harney this morning admitted that the Budget cuts to health funding could reach €1bn.

Describing the spending as “incredibly high”, Reilly said:

While it may not be possible to cut the agency staff bill down to nothing, this suggests tens of millions of euro could be saved by addressing the issue.  The incredibly high spend in 2009 exposes false economies in health service budgeting.

He pointed to research which suggested that the cost of hiring outside agency staff was, on balance, 36% higher than the cost of directly employing a new staff member.

The figures were obtained by the party in response to a parliamentary question lodged by Mayo TD John O’Mahony.