David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 479: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his progress, to date, on implementing a flexible working hours system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11118/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department operates a range of family-friendly working arrangements including work-sharing, term time leave and parental leave. Some 900 staff currently avail of these schemes.

A flexible working hours scheme was introduced into my Department in 1986 and now forms part of a package of measures which have been implemented across the Civil Service to allow staff balance work and other responsibilities in a way which suits their circumstances. The flexible working hours scheme has undergone a number of changes and adjustments over the years — such changes have always been negotiated and agreed with the Civil Service staff unions. Currently, 3,600 staff in my Department avail of flexi-time, that is, over three quarters of the Department's staff.