Written answers

Tuesday, 6 November 2012

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Departmental Staff

Photo of Billy KelleherBilly Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the names of each staff member within his Department that has been rehired since March 2011 and the cost involved in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47295/12]

Photo of Eamon GilmoreEamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Details are set out in the following table of the retired officials of my Department who were temporarily re-engaged or who were already contracted to the Department during the period in question:

NAME /GRADE
POSITION HELD
DURATION
ESTIMATED COST
Frank Cogan
Assistant Secretary
Head of Task Force in connection with Ireland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE, 2012Contract from 7 January 2011 to 31 December 2012
70,835 in 2012
Pádraig Murphy
Deputy Secretary
Tánaiste’s Special Representative in connection with Ireland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE, 2012Contract for a maximum of 30 weeks spread over the twelve months of 2012
62,450 in 2012
Hugh Swift
Assistant Secretary
Passport Appeals OfficerThree-year contract from 20 January 2012 to deal with appeals as and when they arise
Dependent on the number of appeals processed (no costs incurred in 2011 or to date in 2012)
Art Agnew
Assistant Secretary
To assist in the preparation of files for the National ArchivesContract for a maximum of 10 weeks spread over the twelve months of 2012
16,246 in 2012
Brendan Moran
Counsellor
Relating to Ireland’s Chairmanship of the OSCE, 2012 Contract from 4 February 2011 to 22 December 2011
29,452 in 2011
(no costs incurred in 2012)
Joe Brennan
Counsellor
To assist in preparations for the Irish Presidency of the European Union in January-June 2013Contract from 1 May 2012 to 30 June 2013
8,866 in 2012

My Department’s Development Cooperation Division also occasionally engages a small number of retired staff for short duration specialist consultancy projects connected with the activities of Irish Aid.

The policy of my Department regarding the re-engagement of retired officials is to do so to the minimum extent possible. However, for certain once-off or short-duration projects, it is more productive and cost-effective to re-engage retired staff who already have the relevant expertise and experience than to go through a time-consuming and relatively expensive recruitment, induction and training process. Where it occurs, retired staff are usually re-engaged on a pension abatement basis, which means in effect that they continue to receive their pensions and are paid correspondingly reduced salaries by the Department.

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