The trade union Siptu has lodged a claim with the HSE to have 1,000 hospital support staff who are currently employed as part of a Government intern scheme made permanent on higher pay.

The move follows revelations in The Irish Times that since 2011 the number of senior managers in public hospitals has increased by more than 10 per cent, while the number of nurses and support grades has been reduced.

Siptu national health division organiser Paul Bell said the union had formally told the HSE that it would "not support any notion of expanding the support staff (intern) scheme beyond the 1,000 positions agreed under the Haddington Road agreement".

Under this scheme the 1,000 support staff, who work in hospitals, receive 85 per cent of the official rate for the post.

Support staff in hospitals who are represented by Siptu include porters, cleaners and catering personnel.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Bell said: "I have informed the HSE of our position and I have also made claim that staff employed under the intern programme to date be made permanent with immediate effect. Siptu's position in this regard is in response to the agency spend which runs in excess of €45 million per annum for support staff grades.

“Our position is also in line with the Government’s stated end to the staff recruitment embargo announced in budget 2015. We await an urgent meeting in this regard.”

Mr Bell said he was shocked by the revelations that while senior managers had left the HSE as part of voluntary redundancy schemes from 2010 on a non-replacement basis, many had actually been replaced by others.

“Throughout this period almost 3,000 frontline were lost and not replaced, creating serious stresses in the delivery of services,” he said.

“What is even more staggering, is that in 2013 the HSE spent over €230,000,000 on agency staff in order to prop up the staff recruitment embargo.

“To add insult to injury, it has now been revealed that the agency spend for this year 2014 will reach €326,000,000, despite the fact that HSE corporate has instructed that no agency staff be engaged. It is obvious that no one is accountable for these actions.”

Internal report

An internal HSE report given to a Government monitoring committee on health in September showed that the numbers of senior management staff (grade VIII level and above) in acute hospitals increased from 273 in 2011 to 303 in 2014, a rise of 10.9 per cent.

The number of directly employed middle management personnel in the acute hospital sector also rose in the same period, but there was a fall of about 4 per cent in the number of lower-level administrative personnel.

The report said the numbers in staff nurse core grades had fallen by 744 since 2011, although there had been an increase of 121 in the number of staff midwives.

The number of general support staff including cleaners, caterers and porters fell by 468 between 2011 and 2014, according to the HSE figures.

Numbers of health-care assistants/nurse aides fell by 2.9 per cent (the equivalent of more than 100 staff) in the same period.

The HSE told the monitoring committee that the increase in the number of senior managers was due mainly to a “regularisation process” set out in the Haddington Road agreement on public service pay and productivity, which came into effect in mid-2013.

It said the vast bulk of the increase in numbers at senior management level had taken place last year and this year.