Written answers
Thursday, 10 November 2005
Department of Foreign Affairs
Departmental Staff
5:00 pm
Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 12: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of new staff members who came from the existing pool of civil servants among the intake of staff into Development Co-operation Ireland over each of the past five years; the persons who are contract staff; and if he will further indicate the number of consultancies undertaken by DCI in the same period. [33484/05]
Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Taoiseach announced at the UN Millennium Review Summit in New York on 14 September that the Government will reach the target of spending 0.7% of GNP on official development assistance by 2012. We have agreed a number of steps along the way to achieving the target, including interim targets of 0.5% of GNP in 2007 and 0.6% in 2010. We have, therefore, a clear pathway to achieving the UN target in 2012. The precise allocation to the Department's Vote for International Co-operation, Vote 29, will be announced in the context of the Estimates. However, on the basis of current anticipated growth rates, total ODA, at 0.47% of GNP in 2006, is expected to be of the order of €675 million.
Over the next weeks and months, the Department will assess the staffing levels which will be required to manage a significantly expanded aid programme. The Deputy will be interested to know that ten new posts for the directorate were approved by the Department of Finance in November 2000, and a further 22 in February 2002. In addition, three staff from the former National Committee for Development Education and 17 staff of the former Agency for Personal Service Overseas were integrated into the directorate in 2003 and 2004, respectively.
The following table indicates the number of new staff recruited by the Department and assigned to the development co-operation directorate over the past five years. It should be noted that a number of staff will also have left the directorate during this period. I am also providing a table indicating the number of consultants engaged by the directorate in each of the past five years.
| Table: Newly recruited staff assigned to DCD during the period 2000-2005 to date. | |||||
| Year | A | B | C | D | Total number of assignments (A+C+D) |
| 2000 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 21 | |
| 2001 | 22 | 2 | 6 | 28 | |
| 2002 | 17 | 1 | 9 | 26 | |
| 2003 | 9 | 1 | 13 | 3 | 25 |
| 2004 | 18 | 17 | 7 | 25 | |
| 2005 To date | 12 | 8 | 12 | ||
| Note 1: The information provided above excludes the following categories: | |||||
| 1.temporary staff recruited to serve in ministerial offices, whose appointments are or were coterminous with those of the Ministers concerned; | |||||
| 2. staff temporarily recruited in connection with the additional work which arose in the lead-up to and during Ireland's EU Presidency in the first half of 2004; | |||||
| 3.stagiaires; and | |||||
| 4. staff locally recruited by Irish Development Co-operation Missions. | |||||
| Note 2: Columns B and D above include staff of the former National Committee for Development Education, NCDE, and the former Agency for Personal Service Overseas, APSO, who were integrated into the Department in 2003 and 2004, respectively. |
| Table: Consultants engaged by the Development Co-operation Directorate during the past five years. | |||||||
| Year | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 (to date) | Total |
| Number of consultants engaged | 92 | 48 | 88 | 69 | 104 | 37 | 438 |
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