Vol. 491 No. 6
50 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if her attention has been drawn to the fact that there is a specialist staff shortage in the office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12797/98]
The Director of Telecommunications Regulation was appointed under the Telecommunications (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1996. Under section 5 of this Act, when a request is made by the director for staff, I have the responsibility, in consultation with the Minister for Finance, for determining the staff resources to be made available.
My Department received a submission from the director's office which set out in detail a case for additional staff resources. Following discussions with the relevant staff interests and the Department of Finance, sanction was given last week to proceed with the filling of all the posts sought by the director. These posts included both specialist staff with expertise in such areas as finance, economics and law and administrative and clerical staff. Advertisements for these specialist staff were placed in the national newspapers on Friday, 22 May 1998 and they will be recruited as soon as possible. I expect that the administrative and clerical posts sanctioned will be filled as expeditiously as possible.
