Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 286: To ask the Minister for Transport the number of people as of 31 October 2007 who were employed in his Department; the number who were permanent employees; the number who were temporary staff; the number who were contracted staff; if he will provide comparative figures for 31 October 2002; and if he will provide the information in tabular readable form. [30619/07]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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As of 31 October 2007 there are 456.82 staff employed in my Department. This is a whole time equivalent (wte) figure and all staff included are permanent employees. There were 10 temporary staff employed in my Department as of 31 October 2007. All these staff are on contract.

The functions of the Department of Transport changed following the Government election in 2002 and this led to substantial movement of staff among Departments. While there are no readily available figures for staff employed on 31 October 2002 the figure on 31 December 2002 was 509.47 (wte). The Department does not have a figure available for temporary staff employed at that time.

Staffing numbers between 2002 and 2007 are not directly comparable since, in addition to the changes in functions in 2002 referred to above, the Department experienced staff movements as a result of a number of other changes in functions since then. These include the Department taking responsibility for maritime issues on 1 January 2006, the establishment of the Road Safety Authority on 1 September 2006 and the recent transfer of responsibility for non-national roads and related matters to the Department from the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.