Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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21. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide the details of average cuts paid by his Department and State agencies under his aegis to recruitment and temporary employment agencies, that is the proportion of the fee paid from State funding to such agencies is received by the worker and the proportion by the agency. [42066/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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In response to the Deputy's question I can confirm that my Department does not use the services of recruitment or employment agencies. The Department has used the services of the Public Appointments Service, "PAS" in all our recruitment requirements and related advertising. PAS has a budget allocation for this purpose. The Department would only be required to pay additional costs in cases where we have requested advertisements to be placed in specific publications or with requirements above the PAS general standard/format. Since my Department was established in July 2011 I have not incurred any additional costs.

The arrangement with regard to the proportion of fees paid to the worker by the agency is primarily a matter for both of those parties and, quite often, my office would not have knowledge of the details of such arrangements.

The average proportion of the gross fee that the agencies receive for their administration in the Office of Public Works is in the region of 13% and the worker receives approximately 87%.

In 2014 the Institute for Public Administration paid a fee amounting to €527.96 to an employment agency which related to a salary paid to an employee amounting to €6,598.96.

The following table shows the fees paid by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) to recruitment and temporary employment agencies from 2011 to date:

Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB)*

Fees paid to recruitment and employment agencies