Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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472. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to replace retiring technical officers in the National University of Ireland, Galway (details supplied). [25863/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department allocates recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to the HEA-designated higher education institutions, including the university referred to by the Deputy. The HEA allocates this funding to the institutions and the internal disbursement of funding is then a matter for the individual institution. Universities are autonomous bodies as set out in the Universities Act 1997 and are responsible for their own day to day affairs, including the allocation of all of their income (both public and private).

As the Deputy will be aware, since the introduction of the moratorium on public sector recruitment, an Employment Control Framework (ECF) has been in place for the higher education sector which provides institutions with considerable flexibility to fill vacancies through recruitment or promotions on the basis of meeting an overall ceiling of posts. Under this Framework the re-employment of retired staff should only occur in very limited exceptional circumstances and in these cases the salaries offered may not exceed 20% of the full-time salary of the post of the individual at the time of their retirement, adjusted to reflect the application of Government pay policy in the period since their date of retirement – including in particular the application of salary adjustments imposed under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009.

In Budget 2015, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform announced that the existing ECFs and associated moratoriums would be lifted and replaced with a system of delegated sanction for recruiting and promoting up to Principal Officer level, subject to adherence by Departments to binding pay ceilings and ongoing compliance with Workforce Planning requirements. In light of this announcement a new Delegated Sanction Agreement for the higher education sector will be put in place shortly.