Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
975. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the full-year running costs of the local authorities, including details of number of employees, the average earnings of an LA employee, and the range of incomes, by grade (both indoor and outdoor), of these employees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39418/23]
View answerLocal authority gross expenditure is published annually by local authorities in their Annual Financial Statements (AFS) and the information is generally available on each individual local authority’s website. Each local authority is required to prepare an AFS by the end of March following year end and to publish it by the end of June. These financial statements undergo an independent audit by the Local Government Audit Service. When all audits are complete, my Department publishes a consolidated Annual Financial Statement, compiled from the AFS published by each local authority.
Information on Local Authority Payroll and Operational Expenditure is contained in Appendix 1 of the Annual Financial Statement. The most recent consolidated Annual Financial Statement published is for 2021 and is available at this link:
www.gov.ie/en/collection/e103b-local-authority-annual-financial-statements
Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels.
Staffing numbers for the local authority sector are available on the Public Service Numbers databank, which is hosted and maintained by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDR) and is available at the following link:
databank.per.gov.ie/Public_Service_Numbers.aspx?rep=LA
The information sought is available for the period 2008 to end Q1 2023 broken down on a quarterly basis. Staffing numbers for the end of Q2 2023 will be published on the DPENDR databank in due course.
