Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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154. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of requests he received from the Workplace Relations Commission seeking permission to employ additional staff and the number of these he approved and refused, and the number pending for each of the years 2014 to 2016 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6453/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was established on 1st October 2015 under the Workplace Relations Act 2015, and has responsibility for information provision, workplace advice, mediation, conciliation, adjudication, inspection and enforcement in relation to employment rights, equality and equal status matters and industrial relations. The WRC assumed the roles and functions previously carried out by the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA), Equality Tribunal (ET), Labour Relations Commission (LRC), Rights Commissioners Service (RCS), and the first-instance (Complaints and Referrals) functions of the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT), and its staff forms part of the overall Departmental staffing complement.

The overall objective of the Workplace Relations Reform Programme is to deliver a world-class workplace relations service and employment rights framework that serves the needs of employers and employees and provides maximum value for money. The formation of the WRC therefore was intended to generate significant productivity through the bringing together of the services and staffing complements of the pre-existing bodies. In addition there is a significant multi-annual programme of investment in ICT systems which further contributes to the efficiencies within the organisation.

Staffing resources are allocated across my Department in the context of the requirement to manage the pay bill and staff numbers in accordance with Government policy, utilising available resources in the most effective and efficient manner as appropriate to business needs and priorities. On a day-to-day basis the HR Unit of my Department works with individual Business Units and the Department’s Management Board team on the allocation of staff resources and this would include the WRC. As an “Office” of my Department, this allows the Secretary General and his HR team the freedom to reallocate resources from one Business Unit to another as priorities change, always mindful that the pay-budget limits do constrain our capacity to grow staffing levels as well as having regard to strategic priorities captured through the workforce planning process, the latest iteration of which is currently under way in the Department.