Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 127: To ask the Taoiseach the number of former employees who have been brought back to work on contract, or other staff employed on contract to do work which has traditionally been done in-house among his Department and the agencies under his authority; and the way in which this practice fits with the intention of an embargo on recruitment. [36466/05]

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Law Reform Commission, which comes under the aegis of my Department, has a part-time project manager who is a former employee, chief executive officer, Legal Aid Board-assistant secretary, Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform. The project manager assists the Attorney General's consultative committee in monitoring the implementation of the Law Reform Commission recommendations for law review, and relations with the Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform, the Law Reform Commission and the Office of the Attorney General. The project manager was selected by the Office of the Attorney General and then assigned to the Law Reform Commission.

The Law Reform Commission also employs a former employee of the Office of the Attorney General. The commission's annual budget includes a sum of money to engage the services of legal expertise on short-term contracts as the need arises and it is on that basis that the former employee, parliamentary draftsperson, of the office of the Attorney General was engaged to draw up draft Bills including the draft criminal justice (DNA database) Bill 2005, included in the recent report published, The Establishment of a DNA Database, LRC 78-2005.

During the period in question, the Office of the Attorney General employed several experienced drafters on a contract basis. On average there were 3.5 such persons retained during the past three years, including the former staff member referred to above.

In June of this year, my Department contracted a temporary clerical officer when there was no clerical officer panel in existence. The recruited individual was afforded development and training opportunities within the Department of the Taoiseach. No former employees have been brought back to work on contract in my Department or in any of the other bodies under its authority.