Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 November 2014
21. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide the details of average cuts paid by his Department and State agencies under his aegis to recruitment and temporary employment agencies, that is the proportion of the fee paid from State funding to such agencies is received by the worker and the proportion by the agency. [42066/14]
View answerIn response to the Deputy's question I can confirm that my Department does not use the services of recruitment or employment agencies. The Department has used the services of the Public Appointments Service, "PAS" in all our recruitment requirements and related advertising. PAS has a budget allocation for this purpose. The Department would only be required to pay additional costs in cases where we have requested advertisements to be placed in specific publications or with requirements above the PAS general standard/format. Since my Department was established in July 2011 I have not incurred any additional costs.
The arrangement with regard to the proportion of fees paid to the worker by the agency is primarily a matter for both of those parties and, quite often, my office would not have knowledge of the details of such arrangements.
The average proportion of the gross fee that the agencies receive for their administration in the Office of Public Works is in the region of 13% and the worker receives approximately 87%.
In 2014 the Institute for Public Administration paid a fee amounting to €527.96 to an employment agency which related to a salary paid to an employee amounting to €6,598.96.
The following table shows the fees paid by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) to recruitment and temporary employment agencies from 2011 to date:
Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB)*
Fees paid to recruitment and employment agencies
|
Year |
Recruitment/Employment Agency Total Cost (€)
|
Total Amount Paid to Employees (€) |
Agency Mark-up Fee (€) |
Ancillary Costs **
(€) |
|
2011 |
€170,864 |
€109,353 |
€30,756 |
€30,756 |
|
2012 |
€144,867 |
€92,715 |
€26,076 |
€26,076 |
|
2013 |
€94,080 |
€60,211 |
€16,934 |
€16,934 |
|
2014 to date |
€43,650 |
€27,936 |
€7,857 |
€7,857 |
|
Total |
€453,461 |
€290,215 |
€81,623 |
€81,623 |
* The costs incurred by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) represent total costs funded by both Northern Ireland and Ireland. In the time available for responding it was not possible for the SEUPB to apply a North South split to these costs. Where necessary, an exchange rate of £1 = €1.278 has been used.
**Ancillary costs are separate to the agency mark-up fee and the total amount of money paid to employees. Ancillary costs include holiday pay which is paid directly to the employee, National Insurance contributions passed on to the Revenue, and the cost to the agency of payroll processing costs.
