Mary Lou McDonald
Ceist:7. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach the number of staff employed in his Department in 2018. [53032/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 15 January 2019
Ceisteanna (7, 8)
Brendan Howlin
Ceist:8. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Taoiseach the number of staff employed in his Department in 2018 by grade and gender; and the way in which it compares with 2017. [53035/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí ó Béal (13 píosaí cainte)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 8 together.
There were 211.5 whole-time-equivalent staff working in my Department on 31 December 2018. That compares to a figure of 203.5 whole-time-equivalent staff on 31 December 2017.
My Department is structured around seven main work areas. The breakdown of posts currently in each of these areas is as follows: there are 28 posts in the international, EU and Northern Ireland division, including responsibility on Brexit matters; 26 posts in the economic division; 27 posts in the Government secretariat, protocol and general division and the parliamentary liaison unit; 21 posts in the social policy and public service reform division; 35 posts in the corporate affairs division; and eight posts in the information and records management unit. The remainder of posts in my Department include services staff and those in the private offices, constituency offices and internal audit.
While the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has overall responsibility for Brexit, in recent months my Department established a small unit to assist with Brexit preparedness and contingency planning to augment the ongoing work of my Department's international, EU and Northern Ireland division. The unit has a current staffing complement of six. The existing responsibilities of the international, EU and Northern Ireland division with regard to Brexit are unchanged.
My Department uses workforce planning and succession planning to ensure that there are sufficient staffing resources in place to deliver the Department's strategic goals. With the exception of politically appointed staff, staff assignments in my Department are the responsibility of the Secretary General and the senior management team of the Department.
The information requested regarding numbers of staff in my Department by grade and gender is set out in tabular format. The majority of senior management staff at assistant principal and principal officer level in my Department are female. Female officers at principal officer level currently hold the posts of head of section or division in the economic division, the Britain and Northern Ireland Affairs section, the EU section, the protocol and general division, the social policy and public service reform division, and the Government Information Service.
Since 2017 female representation at assistant secretary or director level on my Department's management committee has increased from 29% to 40%.
Table 1: Department of the Taoiseach Staff by Grade and Gender - 31 December 2018*
|
Grade |
Total No. |
% Male |
% Female |
|
Secretary General |
1 |
100% |
|
|
Second Secretary General |
1 |
100% |
|
|
Assistant Secretary |
5 |
60% |
40% |
|
Principal Officer |
15 |
47% |
53% |
|
Assistant Principal Officer |
40 |
32% |
68% |
|
Higher Executive Officer |
34 |
26% |
74% |
|
Administrative Officer |
16 |
31% |
69% |
|
Executive Officer |
37 |
19% |
81% |
|
Clerical Officer |
37 |
43% |
57% |
|
Services Staff |
18 |
67% |
33% |
|
Total |
204 |
37% |
63% |
*excludes politically appointed staff
Table 2: Department of the Taoiseach Staff by Grade and Gender - 31 December 2017*
|
Grade |
Total No. |
% Male |
% Female |
|
Secretary General |
1 |
100% |
|
|
Second Secretary General |
1 |
100% |
|
|
Assistant Secretary |
7 |
71% |
29% |
|
Principal Officer |
13 |
46% |
54% |
|
Assistant Principal Officer |
36 |
42% |
58% |
|
Higher Executive Officer |
31 |
26% |
74% |
|
Administrative Officer |
19 |
37% |
63% |
|
Executive Officer |
32 |
22% |
78% |
|
Clerical Officer |
42 |
31% |
69% |
|
Services Staff |
18 |
67% |
33% |
|
Total |
200 |
37% |
63% |
*excludes politically appointed staff.
Less than 3% of the staff, six out of 211 whole-time equivalents in the Taoiseach's Department are working specifically on Brexit contingency planning. As we enter a period where the clock is running down on our nearest neighbours regarding its decision on whether to accept or reject the withdrawal agreement, we need to question whether that is the appropriate allocation of staff given some of the scenarios before us that may play out.
It is almost certain that the withdrawal agreement agreed between the British Government and the European Union will be rejected by the Westminster Parliament this evening. It is important to state that no matter what the outcome across the water, Ireland's interests need to be protected and defended. The Good Friday Agreement is an international agreement and the Government is a co-guarantor of the agreement which needs to be protected in all of its parts. That needs to be the fundamental principle that define us as we go ahead and try to muddle our way through whatever the outworkings of the British decisions are in terms of Brexit. It is important that there is support and a deeper understanding of what the Good Friday Agreement means right across the European Union, and that is to be welcomed despite some of the narrative that has come from those that are pro-Brexit.
The DUP's position has been reckless. I am on record in the Dáil saying that. It is irresponsible and is definitely not in the interests of those whom the DUP claims to represent in the North of our island. The DUP has gone beyond recklessness to the extreme bizarreness of the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, today claiming that there was never a hard border on the island of Ireland. One could not make this up. As a young lad coming to Dublin on a school tour, I can remember passing Lifford and Aughnacloy and the British Army with its guns and rifles and going through the fortified installations that were on the Border and the army base on each hilltop as we travelled through the countryside.
That is where some of this situation has come from.
When is it the Taoiseach's intention to issue a formal response to the decision that will be taken later this evening in the House of Commons? Will it be tonight after the vote is taken or tomorrow? I raise this in the context of the Order of Business earlier. Given the urgency of this issue and the uncertainty we may be entering into, it is crucial we have an open debate on this tomorrow and that we respect this House-----
The Deputy is way over time.
I will finish on this point. In the week leading up to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the first Dáil, we need to recognise the primacy of this House and have the debate here, not through briefings to the media or individual briefings to different political parties. It should enter this space early tomorrow, when we will have a proper and full discussion on this.
The Deputy should respect the rules of the House and try to adhere to the time limits. I call Deputy Howlin.
I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I have three questions regarding staff deployment in his Department. First, what happened to the staff who were hired or assigned initially to the strategic communications unit, SCU? Were they assigned elsewhere in the Department or where are they now? Second, in regard to the six staff allocated to the Brexit advisory group, are they civil servants who have been given that task or experts hired in with a particular skillset? Will the Taoiseach indicate what is the skillset and job specification of those six individuals? Third, he announced some time ago that he would take a hands-on oversight role on health because one of the issues he has been concerned about, right back to our own time in government, is managing health expenditure. Has he experts in health economics in his Department to advise him on his announced role in regard to taking a hands-on oversight role on managing health and health expenditure into the future?
The Taoiseach will no doubt remember that in July 2017 he informed the House it was his intention to review the workings of the Department of the Taoiseach and then implement changes to its structure and staffing. With the exception of the now abandoned SCU and some increase in PR staff, can he be clear with me, given I am not clear, as to what structural changes have occurred within the Department and what changes he has implemented? Will he tell us what concrete changes he made to the structure or to the balance within the Department in terms of allocation to different sectors?
We hear regular reports from the Taoiseach about how he is going to make certain issues a priority. I recall that before Christmas he said he would take a hands-on approach to rural broadband and that it was going to be a personal crusade. Has he made changes to his Department to assist him with this particular crusade on broadband provision? Given the clear failures to meet the targets that have been set, or to address increasing public concern on health and housing, does this not suggest the current approach to overseeing plans and co-ordination of action simply is not working? Beyond the Taoiseach simply making general statements about prioritising this or that when the latest crisis emerges, there is no system or structure in place within his Department to enable him to do that. What specific expertise in health and housing has he available to him, as chairperson of the Cabinet committees which oversee these areas?
Regarding the vote that will happen in Westminster tonight, the sequence is that any initial response will come from the EU institutions in Brussels. We will co-ordinate with Brussels and I imagine any initial response will come from there, and perhaps from us thereafter, but more likely tomorrow than today.
In terms of the SCU staff, some have transferred to other Departments, some have taken up jobs in the private sector, some have been transferred to the Government Information Service, GIS - indeed, that is where many of them came from in the first place - and some have been reassigned within the Department. I do not have any experts on health economics in the Department, to my knowledge. There may be people who have degrees in health economics but I do not know that for sure. My focus is always on working with my Ministers and trusting the line Departments. I appreciate there are different approaches and I know that, in the past, Heads of Government have set up mini-departments within the Department to monitor what other Departments are doing. My general approach is to trust my Ministers and to trust those line Departments. My job as Taoiseach and the job of my staff is to co-ordinate and to lead but not to try to do the job of line Departments for them, because they have the expertise.
What of the personal crusade?
I would never have thought a personal crusade would mean appointing an adviser. Perhaps that was the Deputy's approach to Government but it is not mine.
It means the Taoiseach does not trust the Minister.
Order please. There are just two minutes left for the Taoiseach to reply.
I may be wrong but I might be the first Taoiseach who is regularly criticised for not having enough advisers and experts in my Department.
In terms of the structural changes that have been made, there is the Brexit group, which has six members of staff. Of course, behind them are the entire Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Taoiseach. We also have some people working on justice reform. I want to make sure the reforms proposed by the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland happen, so I have a few people working in the Department on that and pursuing it, and they are working closely with Department of Justice and Equality and the Garda authorities. We will set up a strategic threat analysis centre, STAC, given the O'Toole commission recommended that such a centre be established within the Department of the Taoiseach, with a national security co-ordinator. We anticipate doing that in the first half of this year. I also have a small group of civil servants who have taken a particular role in monitoring Sláintecare and the implementation of those healthcare reforms.