Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In recent times 75 additional staff were taken on but the more recent proposal is to have a separate research unit with staff who would not be involved in the ordinary day-to-day cases. In the context of this year's Estimates, they sought resources. I do not know at what stage the negotiations are at present. It seems a very valid point that staff involved in day-to-day cases should not be the research people. Additional staff is required for that.

There was a report on the workloads and the expense base of the office of the Chief State Solicitor by reviewers engaged by the Chief State Solicitor's office before the offer was made last year. The offer dealt with many of the issues raised in the course of negotiations with the State Solicitors' Association. It is designed to have a benchmark of expenses. What happens in the Chief State Solicitor's office is that they are contracted. They have separate offices and separate staff, so their workloads are different. They are endeavouring to have a contract that would be compatible for them all. They do the vast amount of the work on a nationwide basis, so they represent a vitally important cog in the whole system. The negotiations are concluded and they are drawing up the contracts that will allow them to work to the Chief State Solicitor's office. There are a large number of people on a nationwide basis involved in these offices. At last, after a long industrial relations process, they seem to have resolved the issue and the contracts are being drawn up. They would be contracted to the Chief State Solicitor's office with terms affixed. There will not be the same money for everyone because the workloads are different in the cases of different counties.

See this speech in context