Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his amendment. We are recruiting the new panel for the adjudication service through the Public Appointments Service. It will be a balanced panel with equal numbers of people appointed from legal, human resources and industrial relations streams. The PAS is undertaking a selection process with the external panel of adjudicators. The competition for inclusion on the external adjudicator panel was advertised on 26 September and the closing date was 16 October. There were approximately 300 applications. The National College of Ireland has developed a 20-day training programme for WRC adjudicators. It has been accredited by Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI. It is intended to run the training programme as soon as the external panel of adjudicators has been appointed which will be on or very soon after the establishment day of the WRC. Those selected for appointment will then have to complete the training programme and pass the associated examination which will cover the full range of requirements. The training will cover all types of cases.