Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

There were 1,192 staff serving in the Department at the end of 2009, 1,177 at the end of 2010, 812 at the end of 2011 and 775 at the end of April 2012. The significant change in the staff numbers between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 arises from the transfer of the heritage function to the new Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in May 2011 and the transfer of community functions to my Department. Having regard to these functional changes, to ensure delivery of the Department's overall objectives and business priorities, and taking account of the recommendations from the organisational review programme report, a restructuring of departmental divisions was carried out in mid 2011.

Internal staff assignments and redeployment, together with streamlining of business areas, continue to be used to ensure optimum staffing in priority business areas. This involved some 50 staff movements in 2011 and to date in 2012. Staffing needs are also being addressed in the workforce planning process under way in my Department in the context of public service reform. As part of this, a full skills needs and availability analysis is being carried out to inform future staffing deployment and training.

The Department's priority business plan sets out the highest priority outputs, deliverables and ongoing activities for 2012. This informs business planning at the business unit level and assists with resource and workforce planning. In addition, my Department has also undertaken some internal redeployment and streamlining to take account of recent retirements and in preparation for Ireland's EU Presidency term in early 2013, in which environment, climate change and sustainable development are significant themes at EU and international level.

My Department places considerable emphasis on relevant skills development. It offers ongoing training programmes for staff, based on requirements identified through the performance management development system, PMDS, process and in the organisational review programme report. The programmes vary and include training in areas such as ICT, language, law, economics, policy analysis, office skills and professional development. Training is also provided under a refund of educational fees scheme which operates on an annual basis and where staff members can develop specific critical skills through a number of formal education programmes offered by third level institutions. Expenditure on the Department's full training programme in 2009 was €734,000, in 2010 was €418,000 and in 2011 was €336,000. The training budget for 2012 is €338,000.

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