Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

While decentralisation issues are large in terms of finance deals, they do not take any longer to deal with than very small cases. However, the work of the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, in immigration and all kinds of areas, has increased and continues to do so. A staff complement of 230 has now been approved and the Office of the DPP is recruiting the additional staff sanctioned. That office now has a staff complement of approximately 170. There have been substantial increases in staffing rates over the past five years. An agreement was reached a few years ago. There has been an increase of 75 staff, including 66 professional technical staff. A new recruitment scale for solicitors has replaced the old two-tier system. Some 52 extra professional staff have been appointed to both offices while 12 extra senior posts have been created along with 14 extra technical posts. More legal clerks have also been recruited. All those extra staff are now in place but their workload has grown. They have also undertaken a major IT modernisation programme. That work, which began in 2000, was completed, by and large, by last year.

See this speech in context