Vol. 434 No. 4
99 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Finance whether he has satisfied himself that the new committees are adequately resourced; and the numbers of staff available to service the committees as compared to the staff numbers working to service the Houses of the Oireachtas before implementation of the Dáil Reform programme.
As I previously indicated to the Deputy, the committees are to be staffed by the redeployment of personnel from elsewhere in the Houses of the Oireachtas and through the assignment of staff with requisite skills from Departments dealt with by individual committees. This process is ongoing and I expect further developments in the coming weeks.
The current position in regard to individual committees is as follows:
Foreign Affairs Committee: As the Deputy will realise, the functions of this committee superseded those of the former Joint Committee on Secondary Legislation of the European Community. The staff of the EC Committee was 1 PO, 2 AP, 2 CA. All have been redeployed to the Foreign Affairs Committee. In addition, a number of staff have been provided to the Foreign Affairs Committee, as follows: 1 AP, 1 HEO.
Enterprise and Economic Strategy: The committee inherited the assistant principal who had previously been assigned to the former employment committee. A CA who was formerly assigned to the employment committee has been redeployed to be shared by the newly established Committees.
Social Affairs Committee: An assistant principal who was previously assigned to the State Sponsored Bodies Committee has been redeployed to the Social Affairs Committee.
I have previously indicated to the Deputy the staffing initiatives which have been taken in regard to reporting arrangements for the committees.
