Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, who is before the committee for the first time, as well as his team. I thank him for the overview he has given. I apologise but I have to leave fairly sharpish because I have a meeting in my constituency that I cannot change.

I wish to touch on the WRC and the HSA. The Minister may or may not be aware that in 2006, under a national wage agreement entitled Toward 2016, which was intended to be a ten-year agreement, the number of WRC inspectors was to increase to 90. The figures the Minister has given show there are currently 63, with seven to be recruited. That gives 70, which is 20 short of the agreement. Have retirements been factored into that? As I said, with 70 inspectors, we are already short. There is a problem with the WRC, which I am sure the Minister is aware of, namely, it takes a long time to get a case in and heard. That is causing a particular difficulty.

Likewise, is there a target for the HSA? An increase in the budget is welcome but what is needed is additional personnel to do these investigations. We know that when the HSA does investigations its work is absolutely fantastic.

However, there are a lot of announced inspections that should be unannounced. There are a lot of inspections that do not happen for a long period of time simply because the personnel are not there. Is the figure of 90 inspectors gone? Does the Department have any intention of going back to that figure, which was agreed with the Government in 2006? In the intervening time we have seen the workforce grow. With regard to the Health and Safety Authority is there a target for the number of inspectors? With regard to the WRC has the Minister factored in potential retirements?