Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased Ms Graham had that document to hand. That is a good sign. Some organisations have not had a risk register in two or three years when they have come before the committee. First, I am pleased the NTA has one and, second, I am very pleased Ms Graham had it to hand, which is a first.

I am looking at page 122 of the NTA's financial statement. It shows a spend of €6.6 million on what the NTA calls outsourced staff. The NTA is paying as much for outsourced staff as for its own staff. Its wages, salaries and staffing costs are €6.07 million, and the outsourced placement services costs are €6.6 million. We have asked the NTA to give us a breakdown of the types of firms involved. I ask the witnesses to tell us how long some of these people have been there. One would presume there is a higher risk of staff turnover, that that in itself is an issue and that the NTA is not getting continuity of staff. I have never seen an organisation with so many staff working on an outsourced basis keeping the organisation running. We complain about this in the HSE, but the number of outsourced staff working for that body is probably only a small percentage of its overall staffing. The witnesses cannot answer for other bodies, but I am not aware of any other significant State body that relies on so many outsourced staff.