Alan M. Dukes
Question:8 Mr. Dukes asked the Minister for the Environment the categories and numbers of staff which are planned for the Environmental Protection Agency; and from where it is proposed to recruit those staff.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Environmental Protection Agency Staff.
Staffing of the Environmental Protection Agency is a matter for determination by the agency, subject to the consent of the Ministers for the Environment and Finance as to numbers and grading. The Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992 provides for a variety of means for staffing the agency. It has already been indicated that it is intended to transfer the staff of the Environmental Research Unit who are engaged in environmental functions, as well as the regionally based remaining staff of An Foras Forbartha, into the new agency but this and other such transfers will require consultation with the agency, other public authorities concerned, and the unions-associations representing staff concerned.
Is it not true that the Act also provides for staff to be seconded or transferred to the agency from local authorities? In that event, could the Minister of State tell us how the local authorities will carry out the functions that the Environmental Protection Agency will be requiring them to carry out? Will the Minister indicate whether there is any intention to make any net addition to the resources that we have to achieve the kind of objectives that underly the Act? If there will be no net extra staff where are we going to see the extra environmental protection coming from?
It is true that section 30 of the Act allows for the transfer to the agency of staff not just from local authorities but from public authorities generally. However, it is not envisaged that we will not have additional staff. We will have additional staff employed by the agency, particularly in those specialised areas where we do not currently have satisfactory staffing resources.
One of the main functions of the agency is to carry out a licensing system, and a centrally based agency bringing together a small number of staff would be able to do that far more effectively than having these resources in every local authority such as is the case at the moment. Local authorities in Ireland have 30,000 people employed. Earlier we heard reference to the fact that there are housing and road problems and it is a question for local authorities, in some instances, to redeploy staff from areas where they are not in as much use now as they might have been in the past so that high priority can be given to environmental protection. There is an enormous staff resource in the country generally. It compares very favourably with many countries which have a similar local government system and I do not believe shortage in the environmental area as a result of that. The streamlined measures and the expertise that will be available to the agency centrally will be of great help to local authorities because at the moment many local authorities have to employ consultants in processing planning applications and licensing permits. Obviously, they will have no need to do this once the agency are in place.
Would the Minister of State agree that there are very few local authorities which would regard themselves as being in any way overstaffed in the areas of expertise covered by the Act? Now that she has said that extra resources will be made available would she indicate the areas it is expected these extra people will cover and from where they might come? Will they be recruited within the country or from outside and what kind of people will they be? Would the Minister of State indicate on what the £710,000 is being spent this year in preparing for the setting up of the agency?
Let me answer the Deputy's last question first. As I indicated during the course of the Adjournment debate the other evening when the Deputy raised this issue, the Department are upgrading the regional laboratories which will be taken over by the agency. With support under the Stride programme, we are starting a new environmental research fund which will be operated by the agency and in the process of finalising with the European Community a new data information project which, again, will be used by the agency. Given that they will be an independent body, in so far as it is appropriate, many of the housekeeping matters are being attended to — that is where the £750,000 is being spent.
The Deputy asked from where the new staff will come. I cannot specify exactly where they will come from but in relation to dangerous and toxic waste, for example, the agency will be licensing technical processes in the chemical, pharmaceutical and high-tech industries so specialised staff with qualifications in toxicology and expertise in that area which is in short supply in the country will be required. Where needed, this is often hired in from the private sector.
On the question of staffing, many of the staff will be redeployed from within the existing public sector and the environmental unit within my Department. Obviously, staff will be recruited both within the country and from outside. In any event, we are required under European provisions to advertise staff vacancies of this kind, widely in European bulletins and so on and such advertisements will obviously be carried. I envisage that people both within the country and from outside, from the public and private sectors will apply.
Finally, I have not heard any local authority say that they have an abundance of staff. I agree with the Deputy in that regard but the local authorities have enormous staff resources of 30,000 people and from the point of view of environmental protection——
One cannot put road designers into the Environmental Protection Agency.
I am not talking about putting them into the Environmental Protection Agency. The Deputy asked that if we remove some of their expertise will the local authorities have anybody left to carry out environmental protection work. Much of the shortfall in the area of environmental protection at the moment arises from the fact that the local authorities do not have sufficient people on the monitoring and enforcement side, be it in the area of litter control or of monitoring water quality.
If they are overstaffed, those are not the areas in which they are overstaffed.
The local authorities have sufficient staff to carry out those duties.
I have to say that time is almost exhausted for dealing with Priority Questions. Nevertheless, I will hear the reply to Question No. 9.