Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 10 Oct 2000

Vol. 523 No. 4

Written Answers. - Departmental Staff.

Enda Kenny

Question:

274 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Science the numbers and category of each person currently employed in his Department's building unit; the number of vacancies that exist; the numbers of those posts which have been applied for to be filled; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the unit is seriously under-resourced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21402/00]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

The number of serving staff and the number of current vacancies in my Department's planning and building unit are as follows:

Grade	Number ofServing Staff	Number ofVacancies
Principal Officer/Manager	6	0
Assistant Principal Officer	6	1
Higher Executive Officer	16	1
Executive Officer	31.5	7
Staff Officer	1	1
Clerical Officer	17	2
Senior Architect	6	0
Architect	1	5
Architectural Asst. Grade I	6	0
Architectural Asst. Grade II	6	0
Quantity Surveyor	2	1
Engineer	2	0
Engineer Grade II	1	0
Total	101.5	18

An additional 27 posts were allocated to the planning and building unit of my Department in April 2000 as part of an overall planned increase in the staffing of my Department. The additional posts are included in the table. A number of the new posts have been filled and every effort is being made to fill the remaining vacant positions as quickly as possible. However, the Deputy will be aware that Government Departments are facing the same labour market constraints as other sectors at present and the filling of vacancies is taking longer than had been anticipated.

I can assure the Deputy that the filling of the vacant posts is receiving urgent attention.