Ivor Callely
Ceist:36 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the total number of personnel employed, seconded or involved in any capacity with the Beef Tribunal.
Vol. 442 No. 5
36 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the total number of personnel employed, seconded or involved in any capacity with the Beef Tribunal.
It is not possible to give any precise indication of the number of personnel who have been employed, seconded or involved in any capacity with the beef tribunal as the proceedings involved the attendance of a large number of individuals called as witnesses as well as significant resources from a number of Government Departments, private companies, etc. Also, personnel in a number of Departments, in addition to their normal duties, were engaged on an ongoing basis during and outside normal working hours on the discovery, examination and collation of data for presentation to the tribunal.
According to my Department's records, the number of civil service administrative personnel who were engaged full time in the Department's liaison office, the Office of the Beef Tribunal and the Chief State Solicitors Office during the public sittings of the tribunal was 16. Besides these full time staff, a further 14 public servants were employed at various stages and for varying periods in the above offices. These included staff on temporary loan from other Government Departments and State Institutions.
My Department also employed up to 40 temporary clerical staff on short term contracts to assist with the compilation of material for the tribunal. In addition to the above a number of other Government Departments maintained a presence at the tribunal but my Department has no record of the numbers involved.
Over the period of the tribunal, the State and tribunal legal teams comprised ten senior and junior counsel. My Department does not have full information on the numbers of legal personnel engaged to date by other parties.