Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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88. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he has received requests this year from the National Employment Rights Authority seeking permission to employ additional enforcement inspectors. [40550/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Decisions on the assignment of Departmental staff as Labour Inspectors in NERA, which is an Office of my Department, are taken within the context of staffing targets set for my Department under the Employment Control Framework (ECF) managed centrally by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Staffing of all business units is managed in that context, utilising available resources in the most effective and efficient manner as appropriate to business needs, which are discussed on an ongoing basis within my Department, in light of my Department’s overall mission and goals.

At the end of 2011 there were 66 Labour Inspectors assigned to NERA, which represented a little over 7% of my Department’s overall staffing complement. There are currently 57 Labour Inspectors in post, which again represents just over 7% of my current Departmental staffing cohort. Strategic deployment of limited resources in response to Workforce Planning reviews, ongoing prioritising and reprioritising of work and advocating for key or mission-critical posts to be filled to enable the Department meet its current mission are the key tools at the Department’s disposal regarding staffing resources at this time - with the challenge remaining to do so in a resources-constrained environment.

My Department continues to proactively and productively engage with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on resources for the Department, its Offices and its Agencies. The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has, like so many of the Irish businesses and enterprises it supports, had to do more with less to achieve its objectives in the face of seriously reduced resources. While the Department engages with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on sanctioning the filling of key vacancies within the ECF/Moratorium framework, the respective management of each agency has had to reconfigure their organisation and adapt to a constrained-resources environment. Notwithstanding these constraints, through a comprehensive series of reforms and changed work practices, the Department and its agencies have been able to deliver a comprehensive range of services and supports.

In light of the foregoing, resources for all Business Units in my Department are reviewed periodically and local managements advocate on behalf of their Units in terms of resource allocation. In this context, there would be ongoing dialogue between the management of NERA and the Personnel Unit of my Department regarding resources. In that regard, I am satisfied that in the ongoing resource-constrained environment we must operate, adequate resources are allocated to NERA although that will be kept under review as needs dictate.