Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 3 June 2021
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2021 (Resumed)
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (Revised)
Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach (Revised)
Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General (Revised)
Vote 4 - Central Statistics Office (Revised)
Vote 5 - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Revised)
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Revised)
John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Yesterday before the committee, Mr. Fraser made the point that there is really no head of the Civil Service. There is no one person who takes the responsibility of the totality of the civil servants who are Secretaries General. Is this something that should be addressed so there is a Secretary General, perhaps the Government Secretary General, who should be responsible for the others? It seems odd not to have a person who is the head of an organisation. Perhaps the Minister of State would take up this point.
There is a note on the end of the table that says the staff and grades figures exclude politically appointed staff, commissions of investigation, tribunals of inquiry, citizens' assemblies and so on. Will the Minister of State give a breakdown of politically appointed staff and the other headings of commissions of investigation, tribunals of inquiry, citizens' assemblies and so on, and how all of these are handled?