The Health Service Executive recently said there are currently 1,075 personnel serving at national director, assistant national director, general manager and grade VIII level.

Back in 2009, before the introduction of a moratorium on recruitment, there were a total of 932 senior managers in such positions.

The figures were released after Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher asked parliament for the numbers.

In response to these figures Mr Kelleher said it was disappointing that the HSE could not recruit medical staff at the rate they did managers.

He said "A total of 95 managers have been recruited, while just nine extra emergency medical consultants were taken on.

"Furthermore, other figures provided to me show that there was actually a fall in nursing staff between July and October 2016.”

In response, the HSE said of the 1,075 whole-time equivalent staff at grade VIII and above, 48% of these posts are related to management and administrator roles in hospital and community services.

85% of these personnel were at grade VIII/general manager level and typical roles included service managers.

The HSE said the expanded governance and reporting requirements had necessitated the creation of new posts at these levels.