Vol. 492 No. 1
43 Mr. Stanton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her views on whether the Office of Consumer Affairs is adequately staffed; the action, if any, she proposes to take in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13527/98]
In recently welcoming the publication of the 1997 annual report of the Director of Consumer Affairs, I indicated that the staffing of the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs had been the subject of extensive discussion between the director and my Department, in the course of which the director was informed of departmental concerns about the utilisation of existing resources. Measures were agreed to address this concern, including the appointment of a senior official to assist the director in the management of the office and the commissioning of a consultancy exercise to examine the practices and procedures employed in the office. The senior official has recently taken up duty and discussions are under way concerning the consultancy exercise. I have assured the director that I wish to ensure that adequate resources are available to enable him to properly discharge his statutory functions.
