Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I refer to the tenure and duties of contract staff. The office currently engages 13 staff on a contract basis. Three are engaged in the Attorney General's private office and their tenure is directly linked to that of the Attorney General. Two provide clerical support and one is his special assistant. Five are engaged in drafting legislation with their contracts set to expire in April 2010, two in June 2010, July 2010 and August 2010. Four are engaged as legal researchers to ensure the legal staff involved in advisory and drafting work can concentrate on the more complex aspects of cases or legislation. Their contracts are due to expire between April and August 2010. One is engaged on a part-time basis on the statute law revision project to identify obsolete legislation and bring a Bill to the House to remove it from the Statute Book and that contract expires in November 2010. The office is fully supportive of the Government strategy to reduce public sector numbers. It has ten vacancies for permanent staff and two for contract research staff, which it is not seeking to fill due to the need to make savings.

The number of drafters of legislation has increased since the last parliamentary question in February 2008. There are 23 permanent drafting staff and five consultant drafters now, with a further person expected to join the permanent drafting staff shortly, compared with 19 permanent drafting staff and four consultant drafters when Deputy Gilmore's parliamentary question was last answered in February 2008. Also, a recruitment panel is in place following a competition last year.

The Attorney General's office is considering approaching the Department of Finance to discuss the filling of some of the remaining drafting vacancies. The intention is to eliminate the use of contract drafters once sufficient permanent drafting staff are in place.

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