Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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39. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of employees at the Central Bank of Ireland; the number of posts currently being recruited; the number of staff who have been offered voluntary redundancy this year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24860/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Finance, I have no role in the employment of staff in the Central Bank. Under the Central Bank Act 1942, the Central Bank Commission is responsible for administrating the staffing of the Central Bank with a view to enabling the Central Bank to perform and exercise its functions and powers.

I have been informed by the Central Bank that the Central Bank Commission approves the staffing plan for the Central Bank on an annual basis and this defines the resourcing needs across the organisation. The total number of full-time equivalent employees normally employed by the Central Bank is 1,397.

The Central Bank has informed me that it operates to a recruitment target of 10 weeks from the time a vacancy arises until a candidate is offered a job.  On average this process takes 7.4 weeks. There are currently 133 vacancies.  As of 2 June 2014, 50 offers had been made for these 133 vacancies and 27 had been accepted by candidates at that point.

The Central Bank has advised that it introduced a Voluntary Severance Scheme (VSS) as part of its collective agreement with Unite (known as the Foster Agreement) under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013 legislation. The Central Bank negotiated this agreement in response to the Haddington Road agreement.

The Central Bank has advised that the terms of the scheme  reflect those offered across the public service. The scheme recognises the amount of change that has taken place across the Central Bank and that change is still on-going, resulting in some skill mis-matches.

The Central Bank has also advised that it has recently written to my colleague the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation  confirming that it is likely that in total approximately 70 employees working in the professional and administrative categories of the Central Bank who have volunteered will be made redundant by 31 December 2014 but final numbers have yet to be determined.  In the majority of cases the roles made redundant will not be replaced.