Written Answers. - Departmental Libraries.
Seán Haughey
Question:
101
Mr. Haughey
asked the
Taoiseach
if his Department has a library or if another library comes under the aegis of his Department; the way in which staff are recruited to such libraries; if there are vacancies at the present time; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[7635/02]
My Department has a library with a staff of one information manager, one cataloguer, two HEOs, one EO, one SO and three COs. All its staff but one are established civil servants recruited in the normal way through the Civil Service Commission. One member of staff with a professional library qualification was recruited by my Department through a process of open competition. There are no vacancies in the library at the present time.
In relation to the bodies under the aegis of this Department, although they are independent of the Department, I do have ministerial responsibility in respect of certain administrative matters relating to the Offices of the Attorney General, Chief State Solicitor, Director of Public Prosecutions and the Central Statistics Office. The Office of the Attorney General maintains a library in its premises on Merrion Street. It is headed by a professional law librarian, a permanent, full-time civil servant, and provides access to all relevant information sources useful to the work of the office. In addition to the law librarian, the library's full complement of staff is a systems librarian, a research librarian, a know-how officer and a clerical officer. Additionally, three legal researchers working on contract with the office are attached to the library. Currently the research librarian, the systems librarian and the know how officer positions are vacant. The Civil Service Commission is running two competitions seeking professionally qualified librarians to fill the research and the systems librarian posts. Previously, both these positions were filled on a contract basis but both are now permanent Civil Service posts. The office is waiting for the Civil Service Commission to issue an excluding order for the purposes of enabling the office to recruit, on a contract basis, a know how officer.
The Chief State Solicitor's Office has a library with a staff of one librarian and one clerical officer. There is a vacancy for an assistant librarian which it is in the process of filling; the Civil Service Commission will advertise the vacancy within the next month. Vacancies are filled in the normal way through the Civil Service Commission. The Law Reform Commission has at its disposal a well resourced library with a staff of two – a legal information manager and a cataloguer. Staff of the library are recruited by the Law Reform Commission having received the consent of the Attorney General and with the approval of the Minister for Finance in accordance with the terms of the Law Reform Commission Act, l975. There are no vacancies at present.
There are two libraries in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions – one in Merrion Street and one currently being established in Upper Abbey Street. In Merrion Street there is a law librarian and a staff officer looking after the library. The law librarian was recruited through an open competition run by the Office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners. The staff officer took up duty through an internal transfer within the office. The library in Upper Abbey Street will be staffed by an assistant librarian and the library assistant. These are in the process of being recruited through an open competition recently run by the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission. At this stage, we are awaiting assignment notices from the Civil Service Commission. I have granted approval and both candidates have received security clearance. Temporarily, a clerical officer has been assigned to assist in setting up the new library. The clerical officer was also recruited through an open competition run by the Office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners. In time, he will be re-assigned elsewhere in the office.
The Central Statistics Office has libraries at its Cork and Dublin offices, where a wide range of Irish and international statistical publications are available. The staff in the CSO libraries are civil servants in general service grades, recruited through the normal channels via the Civil Service Commission.
