Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 February 2017
356. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of full-time and part-time staff requests each agency had made for 2017 prior to the announcement in October 2016 that an additional budget allocation had been given to her Department for the evolving Brexit scenario by increasing staff resources in 2017, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5201/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraAgency staffing requests are made to my Department at various times during the year depending on workforce planning demands in each Agency rather than at a fixed time during the year. In parallel, during the annual Estimates process Agencies will bid for a certain pay allocation to reflect their staffing costs in the year ahead. In this context, various Agency requests were considered in the normal way in advance of the last Estimates campaign on a case-by-case basis during the year.
As part of the Estimates campaign, my Department secured an additional €3m towards pay costs arising from the need to commit extra resources to Brexit-related policies/interventions. In that regard, the additional €3m was designed to support the creation of a dedicated Brexit Unit in my Department as well as to fund additional staffing in a number of our Agencies to support their Brexit-related work. Additional resources have been allocated to Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland and the Health and Safety Authority to allow each recruit additional staff to work on Brexit-related activity. Each Agency may also apply some of its Own Resource Income, where it has such a stream, to augment the Exchequer resources by agreement with my Department as required.
Insofar as the four aforementioned Agencies are concerned the allocation of additional resources is anticipated to allow for additional Brexit staffing as follows:
|
Enterprise Ireland |
+39 |
|
IDA Ireland |
+21 |
|
Science Foundation Ireland |
+2 |
|
Health and Safety Authority |
To be determined |
IDA has sought 21 additional staff resources in order that it can meet the jobs and investment targets set out in its Strategy - “Winning Foreign Direct Investment 2015-2019” - and to meet the global challenges of 2017 and beyond with Brexit key among the identified challenges. The Agency also submitted a staff resourcing strategy to the Department in July 2016 which sought sanction for retention of the 35 staff hired on 3-year fixed term contracts under the Winning Abroad Programme. IDA has also sought to reinstate its Graduate Recruitment Programme on a three year contract basis. These latter two requests are still under consideration.
