Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 December 2023
422. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the cost of staffing for environmental planning in local authorities, in and the full cost per post level in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and in Budget 2024, in tabular form. [54984/23]
Amharc ar fhreagra425. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of staff in local authorities biodiversity expertise, for example, ecologists, marine biologists or ornithologists; if there are plans to recruit additional staff; and the average cost per WTE and HTE per grade, in tabular form. [54998/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 422 and 425 together.
Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible.
My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis. However, granular data, in terms of the specific role and function of each individual staff member is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information would be available from individual local authorities.
Local authority gross expenditure is published annually by local authorities in their Annual Financial Statements (AFS) and the information is generally available on each individual local authority’s website. Each local authority is required to prepare an AFS by the end of March following year end and to publish it by the end of June. These financial statements undergo an independent audit by the Local Government Audit Service. When all audits are complete, my Department publishes a consolidated Annual Financial Statement, compiled from the AFS published by each local authority.
Information on Local Authority Payroll is contained in Appendix 1 of the Annual Financial Statement. The most recent consolidated Annual Financial Statement published is for 2021 and is available at this link:
www.gov.ie/en/collection/e103b-local-authority-annual-financial-statements
