Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2012
161. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the names of each staff member within his Department that has been rehired since March 2011 and the cost involved in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47295/12]
View answerDetails are set out in the following table of the retired officials of my Department who were temporarily re-engaged or who were already contracted to the Department during the period in question:
|
NAME /GRADE |
POSITION HELD |
DURATION |
ESTIMATED COST - € |
|
Frank Cogan Assistant Secretary |
Head of Task Force in connection with Ireland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE, 2012 |
Contract from 7 January 2011 to 31 December 2012 |
70,835 in 2012 |
|
Pádraig Murphy Deputy Secretary |
Tánaiste’s Special Representative in connection with Ireland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE, 2012 |
Contract for a maximum of 30 weeks spread over the twelve months of 2012 |
62,450 in 2012 |
|
Hugh Swift Assistant Secretary |
Passport Appeals Officer |
Three-year contract from 20 January 2012 to deal with appeals as and when they arise |
Dependent on the number of appeals processed (no costs incurred in 2011 or to date in 2012) |
|
Art Agnew Assistant Secretary |
To assist in the preparation of files for the National Archives |
Contract for a maximum of 10 weeks spread over the twelve months of 2012 |
16,246 in 2012 |
|
Brendan Moran Counsellor |
Relating to Ireland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE, 2012 |
Contract from 4 February 2011 to 22 December 2011 |
29,452 in 2011 (no costs incurred in 2012) |
|
Joe Brennan Counsellor |
To assist in preparations for the Irish Presidency of the European Union in January-June 2013 |
Contract from 1 May 2012 to 30 June 2013 |
8,866 in 2012 |
My Department’s Development Cooperation Division also occasionally engages a small number of retired staff for short duration specialist consultancy projects connected with the activities of Irish Aid.
The policy of my Department regarding the re-engagement of retired officials is to do so to the minimum extent possible. However, for certain once-off or short-duration projects, it is more productive and cost-effective to re-engage retired staff who already have the relevant expertise and experience than to go through a time-consuming and relatively expensive recruitment, induction and training process. Where it occurs, retired staff are usually re-engaged on a pension abatement basis, which means in effect that they continue to receive their pensions and are paid correspondingly reduced salaries by the Department.
