Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 April 2018
609. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation if the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement is allowed to use unspent moneys set aside for legal fees for other purposes such as hiring additional staff. [15299/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn terms of staffing resource management, the Department operates under a delegated sanction from the Department of Public Service and Reform. The terms of the delegated sanction require the Department to deliver its programmes and services within its allocated pay budget. It is not open, therefore, for the Department to unilaterally use non-pay money such as the money provided for legal costs to supplement its pay budget.
The pay allocation provided to the ODCE in 2017 was €2.838m whereas the actual expenditure incurred on pay last year was €1.976m.
Over recent years, a number of senior-level vacancies have arisen within the ODCE through a combination of retirement, promotion and transfer to other parts of the public service. In that context, the skill sets, competencies, roles and responsibilities associated with each of those posts have been reviewed and reconfigured by the Director to better reflect the organisation’s current needs.
The number of Department staff currently in place in the ODCE is 36. In addition, the number of Gardaí assigned to the ODCE is 7.
The Department is currently engaging with the Public Appointments Service to fill, through open competition, two Forensic Accountant positions as well as two Enforcement Lawyers. At present, there are no requests for additional staffing from the ODCE.
Whilst the Office, along with a number of other State organisations, faces challenges in the recruitment of highly qualified professional staff, particularly in the current buoyant labour market, I am satisfied that it has sufficient pay monies.
Accordingly, the question of supplementing the ODCE’s pay allocation from non-pay monies does not arise.
