Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 February 2014
93. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of requests received from the Revenue Commissioners in 2013 and to date in 2014 for permission to employ additional staff; and the number of such requests that have been approved, refused and are pending. [9904/14]
View answerThe Office of the Revenue Commissioners was granted sanction on 24 October 2012 to fill critical posts up to the limit of its end 2013 Employment Control Framework ceiling of 5,874 WTE, which included additional Local Property Tax (LPT)-related posts (reduced to 5,748 WTE for end 2014). It is a condition of this sanction that Revenue must refer to the Public Service Redeployment/Resource Panel to fill any posts in the first instance.
Revenue sought and was granted sanction in December 2012 to recruit Temporary Clerical Officers in 2013 for the Local Property Tax (LPT) and to provide cover for staff availing of the Shorter Working Year in 2013. The contracts involved were to be for an average of 10 weeks each, depending on the particular requirements of the area of work they were assigned to. Revenue also sought and was granted sanction in 2013 for the following staffing resource requests:
- 1 EO for Audit & Compliance duties in the Cork area.
- Secondment of a Principal Officer from SFADCo for up to 9 months to work on LPT, Payroll Shared Services and Financial Management Projects.
- NUIG Intern placement for 12 weeks
- 3 EO posts and 1 CO post for Oil Task Unit in Border area.
- Open AO Competition for Audit & Investigation specialists.
- Temporary Higher Duties Allowance to fill 1 PO and 2 AP posts in critical areas.
- Six-month Internships in Revenue for 6 Masters in Computer Science students.
- Six-month placements for 4 Willing Able Mentoring (WAM) Programme candidates.
- The OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project - 2 POs, 4 APs and 2 AOs for Corporate Business and International Division.
- Temporary Higher Duties Allowance to fill an EO post in the Revenue Print Centre.
- 3 Temporary Solicitors to cover for staff on Maternity Leave and to help cope with an increase in work emanating from new Oil Licensing regime.
- Additional Revenue Enforcement Teams and National Intelligence Branch staffing - 3 HEOs, 6 EOs, 10 COs.
- Commander post (HEO level) for Revenue Cutter in Maritime Unit.
- Recruitment of Temporary Clerical Officers for LPT and Household Charge work, and to cover (only where considered absolutely necessary) staff on Shorter Working Year unpaid leave in 2014. Sanction was also given for payment of higher duties allowance for some staff to help cover the latter.
In 2014, 1 HEO and 1 EO were sanctioned for the newly structured Revenue Print Centre in 2014. The request was for 1 HEO and 2 EOs.
