Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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154. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of Central Bank employees dedicated to financial regulation; if this includes employees dedicated to credit union regulation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9514/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Central Bank that there were 755.7 active FTEs (Full Time Equivalents) working in the Financial Regulation pillar of the Central Bank at the end of January 2017.

With regard to Credit Union regulation, I am informed by the Central Bank that there were 61.2 active FTEs working in the Registry of Credit Unions (RCU) at the end of January 2017. These staff are included in the Financial Regulation figure above.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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155. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of Central Bank employees dedicated to Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9515/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Central Bank that staff from across all three pillars of the Bank are working on various aspects of "Brexit".

The Central Bank has previously said that, if necessary, it will deploy staff to deal with increases in the authorisation pipeline and will reprioritise workload as appropriate. Should there be a marked increase in the financial sector regulated in Ireland, supervisory and enforcement resources will be increased in a commensurate and appropriate manner.

The Central Bank Commission has approved additional complement for 2017 to circa 1,800, which will be a target net increase of 200 staff on the total at end 2016. This 2017 expansion includes dedicated resources of an additional 28 staff to address specific Brexit-related new business needs within existing divisions. The Central Bank also plans to assess on a regular basis the need for contingency-based extra Brexit-related hiring in response to additional business volumes. In this context the Governor has also previously indicated that where further resources are necessary due to an expanded universe of regulated and supervised firms, the Central Bank will increase staff numbers as necessary.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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156. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of staff vacancies in the enforcement section of the Central Bank; the specific roles that are vacant; if the vacancies are in the enforcement advisory section or the enforcement investigations section; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9516/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Central Bank that its Enforcement function has grown substantially in the past year, with a total of 77 employees (53 in Investigations and 24 in Advisory) as at 31 January 2017, compared with 54 employees at the same time last year.

The Bank informs me that there are currently a total of 26 vacancies within Enforcement; 12 in the Investigations Division and 14 in the Advisory Division. These vacancies span the following roles: Enforcement Manager (2), Senior Lawyer (10), Lawyer (7) and Business Support (7).

It should be noted that the Central Bank Commission has approved additional complement for 2017 to circa 1,800, which will be a target net increase of 200 staff on the total at end 2016, and the above vacancies should be seen in this context.

Furthermore, the Governor has also previously indicated that where further resources are necessary due to an expanded universe of regulated and supervised firms, the Central Bank will increase staff numbers as necessary.