Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ambassador Dan Mulhall does a good job, no more than all of our ambassadors. We have the British-Irish Association, the British-Irish Council and engagements between Secretaries General and Permanent Secretaries. There is now constant interaction between Ministers of our Government and their counterparts in Britain. We must first let the Conservative Party decide whom it wants to elect. Let us see who that person is. The new British Prime Minister will then make a statement of intent in how he or she sees the lie of the land ahead.

I cannot speak to that, but it is in our interests to keep up a very high level of engagement with counterparts. There has been speculation about everything from an election taking place in Britain, the possibility of reruns of referenda and so on. That is entirely a matter for the British, but I take the Deputy's point.

IDA Ireland would say that the investment pipeline will continue to be very strong. I heard the chief executive comment recently that the back end of this year will be particularly strong. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has been involved with Enterprise Ireland in terms of companies that are exporting. We have looked at a number of options that may be available to help people. The markets will fluctuate and settle down eventually, but we are concerned about the scale of exports of some of our companies and the competitiveness issues that could arise in that regard. For now, however, we are keeping a very close eye on that. I assure Deputy Sherlock, and the committee, that we will keep up a very high level of engagement. Obviously, we will engage immediately with the person who is elected Prime Minister.

I take the Deputy's point about the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the First Minister, but I was glad to see the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister issue a very clear statement about their intent for the Assembly and the Executive in terms of trade, the economy, people and relationships with us here. Obviously, we will keep up that engagement at a very high level also.

In respect of the Chief State Solicitor's office, it had 246 staff in 2015. It received a delegated sanction to fill vacancies below principal officer level without needing sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Appointments at principal officer level and above will require sanction from that Department. The staffing level of the office at the end of 2015 was 121 professional staff, 25 technical staff, 84 clerical staff and so on. I will come back to the Deputy on the question he asked about the caseload and the backlog.