Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide figures for the average waiting time for an applicant to have a rights commissioner hearing between 2005 and 2011; if he will provide figures for the average waiting time for an applicant to have an Employment Appeals Tribunal hearing between 2005 and 2011; if he will provide figures for the volume of applications for rights commissioner and Employment Appeals Tribunal hearings between 2005 and 2011; if he will provide figures for the staffing levels of the rights commissioner and Employment Appeals Tribunal between 2005 and 2011; and if he will provide the necessary resources to reduce current waiting times for rights commissioner and Employment Appeal Tribunal hearings from current levels to a maximum of one month. [35633/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Rights Commissioner Service is part of the Labour Relations Commission, a statutory body independent of my Department in the performance of its functions. All operational matters relating to the Rights Commissioner Service, including the scheduling of hearings, is a matter for the Labour Relations Commission. Equally, it is a matter for the Commission to decide on the extent to which its administrative resources are allocated to the Rights Commissioner Service. I have forwarded your Question to the Chief Executive of the Commission and have asked that he respond directly to you on the matter. I can say that the number of rights commissioners assigned and administrative staff assigned to the Commission increased significantly since 2005. Details are provided at the end of this reply.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal has also seen a significant increase in its caseload in recent years. Between 2007 and 2009, the number of claims coming to the Tribunal trebled and this had a consequential impact on case processing timeframes. The waiting periods are set out in the table. In response to this increase, the Tribunal has been allocated some additional administrative staff in recent years while also improving the efficiencies of its own operations. As a result, there has been a large increase in the number of claims disposed of by the Tribunal in recent years with 6,064 cases disposed of in 2010 compared with 4,680 in 2009 – an increase of approximately 30%.

I would add however that the functions and outputs of both the Rights Commissioners Service and the Employment Appeals Tribunal are being addressed in the context of my planned reform of the State's employment rights and industrial relations structures and institutions. As part of this, I am chairing an Implementation Group charged with overseeing the restructuring of five existing bodies into a simplified two-tier structure. I expect this reform and streamlining project to deliver a measurable improvement in the quality of services provided to users of the State's employment rights/industrial relations dispute resolution services and reduce the burden of accessing such services for users and reduce costs to the State.