THE DIRECTOR of the National Office of Suicide Prevention warned earlier this year that he would consider resigning as part of a row over staffing levels.
Official documents published yesterday show that director Geoff Day said the work of his office was being “seriously impeded” as a result of a lack of administrative support.
In internal correspondence, released under the Freedom of Information Act, he expressed frustration over the failure to fill an administrative position in his office which had been vacant for several months. He warned that if the post was not filled he would have “no choice” but to consider his position.
The HSE said yesterday that the internal correspondence dated back four months.
It said that in the intervening period the executive had put a process in place to identify administration support and that this was currently being finalised.
“The director of the office remains in post and the NOSP will continue to deliver the level of service set out in the service plan [the executive’s agreement with the Government on how its budget is spent].”
The executive said frontline suicide prevention services were not affected by the continuing process to recruit an administration post.
The Irish Examiner reported that the issue first arose in December 2010 when a staff member who was in the grade four administrative role left under the executive’s voluntary redundancy package.
Under the terms of the Government’s recruitment moratorium, the post had to be filled from within the organisation.
Although a suitable candidate was interviewed and identified for the post, this was subject to her line manager agreeing to release her.