Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Nally report set out a number of recommendations, including that responsibility for local State solicitors should be transferred from the Attorney General to the DPP, with legislative provisions to enable the DPP to delegate to them; that the appointment of State solicitors should be made on the recommendation of the Public Appointments Service, subject to agreement on adequate staffing levels and appropriate staff structures; and that the criminal division of the Chief State Solicitor's office, CSSO, should be transferred to the DPP's office to form a unit headed by the solicitor to the DPP following statutory clarification of the 1994 Act. These issues were addressed.

A common pool of staff, the members of which would be entitled to apply for transfer and promotion among the various legal offices in accordance with accepted Civil Service procedures, was also recommended. The only outstanding recommendation relates to the State solicitor service and that, because it is an industrial relations issue, is the subject of negotiation. Following a report on the workload and the expense base of State solicitors conducted by reviewers engaged by the CSSO, an offer was made on 21 April, which dealt with many of the issues raised during negotiations with the State Solicitors Association and was designed to set a benchmark for the payment of expenses. The CSSO and the DPP feel that the offer responds realistically to the issues raised and it is hoped that the State solicitors will respond favourably. However, given that negotiations are ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further. That is the only outstanding issue.

With regard to staff numbers, the CSSO has recruited the additional staff that were approved. A small number of vacancies exist and the office is in the process of filling them. The DPP's office has recruited the additional staff sanctioned and it has a staff of approximately 170 full-time personnel, while the CSSO has 232 staff. Only a small number of vacancies exist, whereas a number of years ago it was quite difficult to fill positions. However, the advent of new structures and grades and the transferability of staff mean various issues have been addressed.

The Deputy inquired about the workload. The Government has no reason not to contract out legal work. In the recent past, specific cases were contracted out where the workload involved was beyond the capacity of the CSSO. The office also makes extensive use of counsel in dealing with the day-to-day caseload. The DPP's office outsources more prosecution work to barristers and private practice than in most common law jurisdictions and all the advocacy work in contesting jury trials is outsourced to the Bar. Other common law jurisdictions have tended to make greater use of in-house lawyers but that is not what happens here. Local State solicitors are private practitioners who work on contract to the State rather than as State employees and, therefore, work is outsourced to them. Significant amounts of work in the legal service are outsourced.

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