My Department is responsible for workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of regional assemblies employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers quarterly data on staff numbers in regional assemblies; however, the data gathered does not provide details in terms of the number of support staff directly employed or seconded to each assembly. Accordingly, the information requested is not available in my Department but may be obtained directly from the regional assemblies.
The total number of staff employed in each regional assembly for the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 is set out below. Figures for the first quarter of 2018 are being collected at present. In 2014 there were two regional assemblies, (1) Border, Midland and Western and (2) Southern and Eastern, which were dissolved and replaced in 2015 by 3 new Regional Assemblies, namely (1) Eastern and Midlands, (2) Northern and Western and (3) Southern.
Regional Assembly
|
Border, Midland and Western
|
Southern and Eastern
|
Total
|
2014
|
15
|
22
|
37
|
Regional Assembly
|
Eastern and Midlands
|
Northern and Western
|
Southern
|
Total
|
2015
|
13
|
13
|
22
|
48
|
2016
|
15
|
16
|
24
|
55
|
2017
|
16
|
15
|
24
|
55
|
High-level staffing numbers for the local authority sector, including regional assemblies, are available on the Public Service Numbers Databank which is hosted and maintained by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and is available at the following link: http://databank.per.gov.ie/ providing access to information from 1980 onwards. The figures for 2018 will be uploaded on this website as they become available.