Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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575. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide in tabular form by local authority such as service area housing, planning and so on, the number of requests for additional staff received; the number of requests granted; the number of new staff commenced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4752/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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My Department received local authority staff sanction applications for 2,394 acting, contract or permanent positions during 2014, of which 1, 854 have been approved to date . In addition, 427 sanction requests have been received since the beginning of 2015, of which 227 have been approved. A breakdown of sanction requests by local authority is being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authorities for which he or she is responsible. In this regard, commencement dates for new staff and individual staff assignments are a matter for Chief Executives and I have no direct function in relation to these matters.