Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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323. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the efforts being made within his Department to fill all vacant local authority arts officer positions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22295/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As announced in Budget 2015, the moratorium on recruitment has been lifted throughout the local authority sector. Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authorities for which he or she is responsible. It is therefore, a matter for each individual Chief Executive to apply for sanction from my Department and, once approved, to recruit and assign staff to specific divisions within their organisation.

My Department has no sanction requests on hand for Arts Officers.