Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 170: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will to provide a breakdown of academic and non-academic staff employed for each individual institution, in all of the seven universities, all higher education authority designated colleges and all the institutes of technology during the periods December 2008, December 2009 and December 2010; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48284/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Data are available on the numbers of academics and non-academics employed at the end of 2008 and 2009 and are given in the table below. The latest data for December, 2010 are being collated currently and will be forwarded directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.

The figures show a reduction in staffing numbers across the institutions since 2008 in line with the Government's recruitment and promotion moratorium. The purpose of the Government decision to implement a recruitment and promotion moratorium in the public sector is to facilitate a permanent, structural reduction in the numbers of staff serving in the public sector and is intended to contribute significant and ongoing savings to the Exchequer.

In the area of higher education, the Government agreed that an Employment Control Framework (ECF) be developed to provide for the application of the moratorium arrangements to higher education institutions, subject to the continued oversight and review by the HEA and both my Department and the Department of Finance. The Government is anxious to work with the publicly funded higher education institutions in achieving necessary reductions in public expenditure within the sector as an essential part of overall budgetary strategy. The ECF aims to enable this while providing some flexibility around recruitment in the filling of posts. It is a matter for the individual higher education institutions to manage their staffing resources in the context of implementing the framework.

The framework, covering the period up to 31 December, 2010, required the higher education institutions to achieve a minimum 6% reduction in the number of overall core staff by the end of 2010 as compared with the numbers in place at 31 December 2008. The recently published National Recovery Plan includes provision for the application across the public service of an updated ECF, covering the period 2011 to 2014, aimed at significantly reducing the overall public sector paybill. Details of the specific application of the ECF in the education area are being finalised at present.