andMr. Power asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries the number of staff vacancies in his Department on 1st January, 1976.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Departmental Staff Vacancies.
7.
The number was 262.
Would the Minister indicate what efforts are being made in his Department to fill these vacancies?
The usual procedures have been followed to fill the vacancies. Some of them have been filled already since January.
Is it normal to have 200 vacancies?
I got an authorisation a short time ago to fill 82 posts and, if you eliminate those, the number now is smaller than the number that was there when I took office.
When does the Minister think all these posts will be filled?
I do not know. We are talking about a staff of 4,424.
We are talking about 180,000 without jobs and the Minister's Department have 200 vacancies.
When I came into office there were 226 vacancies. If you add 82 to that, it is well over 200, much higher than the present figure.
At the time the Minister came into office, officials of the Department had not to deal with all the schemes they have to deal with now. Is he aware that schemes are being held up because there are not enough people employed by the Minister's Department. I am talking about officials being transferred from one scheme to another so that the scheme they had been working on is held up. The Minister is well aware of that.
I am not so aware. The Deputy knows that you cannot employ permanent people to undertake a scheme that takes only three months, like the cattle headage payments scheme.
The temporary staff that used to be taken on is not being taken on.
Temporary staff were taken on for that.
Should they not be taken on now again?
The scheme is not going on now. It is a scheme which for many reasons has to be done very quickly and on which a large number of staff must be employed.
Is it not a fact that people who are on the land project scheme were taken off to do headage payments? They are going back again and there is a big backlog which they cannot deal with. Is that not true?
You must have experienced people. You cannot bring in temporary people who know nothing at all about the work and throw them into something that is wide open to fraud. The only thing you can do is to rob people for a short period from other similar posts.
There are plenty of qualified people who would do the job as well as people who are taken from one section and put into another to do different work altogether. There is a backlog in the land project scheme because of this transfer of staff.
A large number of temporary people were employed in addition to those who were transferred from other duties.
There must be some finality on this question. A final supplementary from Deputy Collins.
Can the Minister say if there is any restriction which prevents him from filling the 262 posts which he mentioned? Could he further outline for the House what the difficulties are in filling this post, seeing that we have so many unemployed at present?
No more difficulty than ever before. If I looked tomorrow to the commissioners to fill these posts, it could take from six to 12 months. This is not a new thing. As I say, it was worse before I took office.
The Minister says "if he looked to the commissioners" to fill these posts. Has he looked to the commissioners? Is the machinery in operation?
The machinery that was always in operation is still in operation.
Is the Minister trying to fill the posts?
We are always trying to fill them.
Has the Minister put the machinery into operation?
Have the posts been advertised?
The position is better than it was when I took office.
(Interruptions.)
Order. Question No. 8.
Would the Minister accept that the position must be better than when he took office because he has a bigger choice? He has thousands of people to choose from.
I have allowed a considerable amount of latitude on this question.
There was nothing being done.