Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 126: To ask the Minister for Finance if he sanctioned a post of head of translation unit in the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, recently advertised at a salary of €130,000, when there is an embargo on recruitment and when there is a translation unit, Rannóg an Aistríucháin, which operates under the Houses of the Oireachtas; if so, the reason for same; if he envisages sanctioning further recruitments in this translation unit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22919/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government decision on the moratorium on recruitment is not a complete embargo on the filling of all posts in the Civil Service. It allows me, as Minister for Finance, to sanction the filling of vacancies where the business case for continuity of service so requires. Having considered issues arising in connection with a Supreme Court case concerning the translation of statutory instruments into Irish I decided as an exceptional measure to sanction the filling of a post of head of translation unit and five other translation posts in the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, in accordance with the agreed Government strategy. I have ensured, by means of a staff levy on the main Departments and Offices producing statutory instruments, that there will be no addition to the overall total of Civil Service numbers. There will be a review of the new translation unit at the end of the first nine months of operation and the staff requirement will be addressed at that stage. The translation unit, Rannóg an Aistriúcháin, attached to the Houses of the Oireachtas primarily deals with the quite separate issue of the translation of Acts of the Oireachtas into Irish, but not with the translation of statutory instruments.