Vol. 559 No. 2
101 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will endeavour to persuade the EU to ban enriched cages when the Laying Hens Directive is reviewed in 2005 and instead encourage farmers to use well designed and well managed perchery and free range systems; and if his attention has been drawn to the fact that Germany has already banned enriched cages from 2012. [25956/02]
The purpose of the Commission review of the Laying Hens Directive is to consider the results of scientific research into the welfare of laying hens which will be available at that time. There are several ongoing research projects in this area geared towards providing the scientific information necessary to advise member states during the review in 2005. On that basis, it would not be prudent to anticipate the scientific evidence at this stage.
102 Mr. Timmins asked the Taoiseach the number of staff in his office who are assigned to work on constituency matters; the staff who are employed for press or public relations matters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26018/02]
There currently are two personal assistants who are civil servants and one personal secretary assigned to my constituency office on a full-time contract basis. There are also four civil servants assigned to this office, one officer is work-sharing. Two civil servants are assigned by my Department to the constituency office of the Government Chief Whip and one personal secretary is assigned to the constituency office of the Minister of State with special responsibility for European Affairs on a full-time contract basis.
There are no persons appointed as public relations officers per se. However, the details of the people whose work involves liaison with the media are as follows: The Government Press Secretary, Ms Mandy Johnston, is employed full-time on a contract basis; there are four civil servants seconded to this Department to work as press officers. One civil servant is also assigned from my Department and one civil servant is seconded from another Department to work in the press office on administrative duties.
The assistant Government press secretary and head of Government information services is Mr. Iarla Mongey. Mr. Mongey is employed full-time on a contract basis. There is also a personal assistant assigned to work in this office.
