Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach listed some of the many groups that have been established to examine various aspects of public service reform. I confess that I lost track of the various groups as the Taoiseach went through them. I would like to focus on one group, in particular. The programme office that has been established in the Department of the Taoiseach seems to be pretty substantial. I understand from the Taoiseach's reply that the office comprises seven officials from his Department, four officials who have been seconded from elsewhere in the public service and six officials from other Departments. Are all of those officials working full-time? Is the programme office a full-time office? Is the office working on the basis of specified terms of reference? Can the Taoiseach tell the House exactly what is the office's job? How was it appointed? How were the secondees and the officials from the other Departments appointed? What was the process or the basis of their appointment? Can the Taoiseach give an example of the type of work the programme office is engaged in?

Further, which of the different bodies and groups that have been established as part of the process of public service reform proposed the introduction of an embargo on recruitment? I am particularly interested in the manner in which the embargo is being applied. I am concerned about its application to contract staff, for example. The Minister of State, Deputy Dick Roche, will be interested to learn that I visited a recycling centre in Bray this morning. The staff of the centre, who are local authority employees, are on fixed-term contracts that are due to expire in June of this year. According to the terms of the embargo, individual contracts cannot be renewed unless the Minister for Finance agrees to renew them. The recycling centre in Bray will face closure if these contracts are not renewed.

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