Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 794: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of Arts officers working in local authorities that are on contracts; the number, if any that will be up for renewal in the next four years; the effect of the recruitment moratorium on the renewal of these positions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1530/11]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each County and City Manager is responsible for staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authorities for which he or she is responsible, in compliance with the relevant public sector recruitment and employment law requirements.

While my Department gathers data on the numbers employed in each local authority on a quarterly basis, for practical reasons, it does not routinely gather data on the numbers employed in every post within an Authority. However, a comprehensive survey of local authority staff numbers was carried out in May 2010 at which point there were 27.7 whole time equivalent staff employed as Arts Officers in the Sector. The information requested regarding individual contracts of employment is not available in my Department.

My Department has a delegated sanction, from the Department of Finance, effective from August 2009, for implementation of the general moratorium on the filling of public sector posts across all local authorities. This is on condition that the overall staffing levels in the sector are reduced significantly in adherence with the Government's Policy on Staffing and Numbers in the Public Sector. Under the terms of the moratorium, a local authority requires prior approval from my Department for the filling of any vacancy, as an exception to the moratorium. My Department assesses such requests on a case by case basis. Since August 2009 three requests for Arts Officer posts were received, two were approved on the basis of a fixed term contract and one was approved on a permanent basis.