Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Health the number of agency and contract staff currently employed under the aegis of his Department; the mechanism in place for monitoring and managing the associated costs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10984/13]

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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To ask the Minister for Health if he will outline the numbers and cost of agency staff under the aegis of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11064/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Department has a number of contractual arrangements with private sector providers of services such as cleaning companies, canteen, IT technical support where the staff providing the services are not employees of the Department. Other services are procured through consultancy contracts in line with procurement guidelines. Four former staff of my Department (2.2 whole time equivalents) are currently re-engaged on a temporary contract basis in line with a Government Decision on the arrangements for dealing with our EU Presidency requirements. In addition Ministerial appointments in such roles as special advisor, personal assistant, personal secretary and civilian driver have been made on a contract basis. The total number involved in those two categories is eighteen staff (15.86 whole time equivalents). All of these appointments were subject to the sanction of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the provision of Excluding Orders from the Commission for Public Service Appointments in accordance with the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004.

The pensions of retired staff who were re-engaged are subject to pension abatement rules.

The information in respect of the Non-Commercial State Agencies is currently being collated and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as it is available. With regard to the Health Service Executive, they have been asked to collate the data sought as soon as possible and it will be provided directly to the Deputy by them when available.