Recruitment freeze

Some grim news reported in today's Irish Times that the HEA is insisting on a recruitment and promotions freeze across higher education, even in those universities which are operating well within budget. Quite what the implications of this are is not fully clear, particularly given the situation of contract staff up for renewal upon which so many courses and services are dependent. As for the fact that so many of us have spent the last few months slaving away to complete applications for the PRTLI process much of which depends on new recruitment - who knows?