Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

To my knowledge, there is nobody in the Department of the Taoiseach who has been rehired following retirement. I will check this information for the Deputy to ensure its accuracy but I do not believe this to be the case. On the general policy of rehiring people following retirement, the Minister for State, Deputy Brian Hayes dealt with this issue last week in the matter of the rehiring of a number of specialists who returned on contract. For example, in the case of members of the teaching profession, their employer is the board of management of a school and the Department of Education and Skills acts as the paymaster general. The Government made a clear decision early this year that teachers who retired under the voluntary scheme at the end of February and who were teaching the junior certificate and leaving examination classes, could be rehired to continue with their classes until the end of the examination period because of the special bond between teachers of examination classes and their pupils. We did not wish to see disruption caused to those classes if the teachers were replaced by new personnel.

The Deputy will be aware of the issue of the employment of a number of hired veterinary surgeons to carry out inspections in meat factories. These are taken from a long list of veterinary practitioners, the vast majority of whom are in private practice. I do not wish to speak further as a Supreme Court case is pending and the Department closed the list some time ago. As a general principle it is my view that when people retire on pension or gratuity, the opportunities for work should be available to new people who will have that extra enthusiasm and energy for the work. I acknowledge there are cases where particular specialists may be required on a contract basis but as a general principle I believe that when people retire this means retirement rather than a return to work as described by the Deputy.

As for overseeing the delivery of an economic stimulus or action plan, the Office of the Taoiseach, through the Cabinet sub-committees, has the opportunity to call together the agencies and the Ministers and to organise the time line for required actions. I am not suggesting that this does not happen but in order to avoid an occasional drift it is very important to have a regular assessment of progress on the action plan. This is the reason for the special section in my Department which includes personnel from Forfás. Together with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, this section monitors and oversees the jobs action plan which was published in February. The plan contains 270 proposals specifically designed for the small and medium enterprises and small businesses sector. This section in my Department is constantly engaged with Secretaries General, Ministers and Ministers of State in regard to the quarterly schedule of issues and actions that need to be addressed, decided upon and implemented.

I believe the response was approximately 96% in the first quarterly report of that action programme. This may be the easy section and the next section may be more difficult because some of the issues are more complex. I have direct and regular contact with that section of my Department, which cuts across all those other Departments, and I see how those action plans are being implemented. The same applies in regard to the programme for Government as the section is in constant contact with the Ministers and their Secretaries General to ensure the Government plan is implemented in full over its period.

The Deputy asked how I can ensure there will not be a repeat of what happened in the past. I can report that the entire regime has changed and there is now a new emphasis on openness and transparency in the Department of the Taoiseach with a new Secretary General who has considerable experience and who wants to be very proactive in dealing with people. That is why these measures will be published online and ongoing financial transactions will be published monthly for the information of the public and everyone else. I hope that regular meetings between the senior officials of the Department of the Taoiseach and myself will ensure that the areas of responsibility of the Department and of the Government are followed through rigorously and actions which should be accomplished within a particular timescale are seen to happen, all in the interests of better services for everybody.

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