Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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631. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her Department's budget allocated to hiring staff on a Department wide basis; and the specific allocations provided to each State agency under her auspices in each of the years 2014 to 2016; and the budget allocation for 2017. [25374/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The annual Pay allocations for the Department, its Offices and Agencies for the period 2014 to 2017 inclusive are highlighted in the following table:

It should be noted that the Department has delivered a significant amount of reforms over the period in question which have impacted on the annual Pay ceiling and distribution of Pay allocations across the Department’s Vote.

At the end of July 2014 Forfas was dissolved and integrated into the Department. The Forfás Pay allocation was absorbed into the Department’s Pay allocation from 2015 onwards.

In October 2014 the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission was formed through the amalgamation of the Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency (NCA). The 2014 Pay allocation highlighted in the table above is the combined Competition Authority and NCA pay allocation for that year.

The Low Pay Commission was established with a Pay allocation from 2015.

In October 2015 the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was established through the amalgamation of the Labour Relations Commission, Equality Tribunal and the National Employment Rights Authority. These entities, along with the Labour Court and the Employment Appeals Tribunal, were funded through a single subhead on the Department’s Vote, Subhead C3,  under the heading “Workplace Relations Programme”.  From 2016 the pay allocation in Subhead C3 covers the staff of the Workplace Relations Commission, the Labour Court and the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

The 31 Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) were established in April 2014 and these replaced the former City and County Enterprise Boards. A key element of this reform was to enhance the connectivity and synergies between micro-enterprise and the local authority sector to deliver more jobs regionally.

From 2017, in recognition that the LEOs, and the associated staffing cohort is now the responsibility of the Environment and Local Government Vote, the previous LEO’s Pay amount of €7.2 million has been reclassified as Non-Pay expenditure in my Department’s Vote this year. Therefore there is no longer a Pay line in Subhead A8 – Local Enterprise Development (LEOs) and the Non-Pay allocation in the subhead has been increased by the commensurate amount. This technical adjustment partly explains the reduced overall JEI Pay ceiling this year.

The other significant Pay adjustments in 2017 relate to the additional €3 million in Pay secured for Brexit specific posts across the Department and Agencies. In addition an amount of €2.67 million is included in the Department’s Pay ceiling this year relating to the technical adjustments specific to the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

Ordinarily there are 26 fortnightly and 52 weekly Pay runs which impact on the annual pay requirements across the Department’s Vote. In 2015, there was an extra fortnightly pay period, i.e. a 27th fortnightly payrun. In 2016 there was a return to the normal 26 fortnightly pay periods though there was also an extra weekly pay period, i.e. a 53rd weekly payrun. For 2017 there is a return to the norm of 26 fortnightly and 52 weekly pay periods.

Some Agencies, such as Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, National Standards Authority of Ireland and the Health and Safety Authority have access to Agency Own Resource Income which can be utilised to support of their overall operations, which may include Pay purposes.  The retention and usage of Own Resource Income requires annual sanction from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

The Personal Injuries Assessment Board is another agency of the Department. It does not receive any Exchequer Pay allocation as its operations are self-funded from fees received from its operations.