I propose to take Questions Nos. 113 and 114 together.
My Department uses employment agencies to provide agency nursing staff when required, to provide cover for army nurses at military installations. The costs on an annual basis in the period 2011 to date are as follows:
Year
|
Total Payment
|
2011
|
€133,850
|
2012
|
€283,685
|
2013
|
€286,261
|
2014 (to date)
|
€226,238
|
The payments to these agencies include the following elements:
- Gross Nurse Pay;
- Employer PRSI payment (10.75 % of gross nurse pay);
- Administration Fee (10 % of the total of gross nurse pay and employer PRSI);
- VAT at 23 % of the total fee charged by the employment agency.
Agency staff are only employed where there are compelling reasons to engage a person on either an urgent or temporary basis.
My Department does not have any contractual arrangements with recruitment or employment agencies in respect of recruitment to Civil Service posts. The Public Appointments Service (PAS) is an independent body established under the Public Service Management Act 2004 to provide recruitment, assessment and selection services for the Civil Service. My Department engages with PAS when required to recruit administrative staff for the Department and to facilitate the provision of the Psychometric Testing for General Service Recruitment campaigns for the Defence Forces.
The Defence Forces engage the services of companies to carry out specialist psychometric and psychomotor testing for Army, Naval Service and Air Corps Cadetship Competitions as the expertise in these areas of testing is not available in the Defence Forces or in PAS. Amongst the companies engaged to provide these services was CAE PARC Aviation, a specialist aviation recruitment company. The breakdown of fees paid to this recruitment company is set out in the table below:
Year
|
CAE PARC Aviation €
|
2011
|
52,169
|
2012
|
53,031
|
2013
|
Nil
|
2014 (to date)
|
Nil
|
In reply to Dáil Question Number 207 on the Order Paper for answer on 26 September 2013, a figure of €52,000 was provided in respect of payments to CAE PARC Aviation in 2012. Further examination of payments to this company show that the actual payments to the company were €53,031.