John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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31. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of additional staff to be made available to each State agency under her remit to specifically deal with Brexit; the number of these staff that have been recruited to date in 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38180/17]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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53. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if an additional €3 million has been allocated by her Department in 2017 to the evolving Brexit scenario; the number of full-time and part-time staff hired since 1 January 2017 under this budget allocation; the amount allocated to each State agency to date in 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38395/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 53 together.

An additional €3 million was secured for my Department in respect of Pay in Budget 2017 targeted specifically to assist with increased staffing needs for the Department and a number of our Agencies to deal with the evolving Brexit scenario. These funds are enabling the Department and, primarily, our Agencies to recruit additional staff to supplement existing staffing numbers in the context of the workload associated with Brexit. These numbers may grow, by agreement with the Department, as Agencies allocate additional Own Resource Income, to recruit further staff to work on "Brexit-related" activity.

The additional €3m was allocated as follows:

- Enterprise Ireland (€1,700,000)

- IDA Ireland (€750,000)

- Science Foundation Ireland (€150,000)

- The Health and Safety Authority (€150,000), and

- The Department itself (€250,000).

The remaining Agencies that come under the remit of my Department – the National Standards Authority of Ireland, The Personal Injuries Assessment Board, The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and The Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority have not sought to recruit any additional staff specifically for Brexit related issues.

Of the 39 sanctioned Brexit-related posts for Enterprise Ireland (EI), 26 have been filled to date, all of which are full-time positions, and recruitment is ongoing for the remaining 13 posts. In this regard, EI is confident that it has partnered with the most appropriate recruitment agencies around the world and in Ireland to support them in the identification of appropriately qualified high-calibre candidates, increasing the speed of filling the outstanding posts.

Insofar as the IDA Ireland is concerned, 10 Brexit-related posts have been filled to date, all of which are full-time positions, and the recruitment process for the remaining three is under way. IDA Ireland has undertaken a rigorous recruitment process across a wide variety of channels to ensure that the best candidates are identified for these roles.

For Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), it expects a candidate to commence in one of its Brexit-related posts in late October with the two remaining posts anticipated to be filled shortly thereafter. The three posts on offer are full-time positions. In addition, SFI has a number of serving staff allocated Brexit related responsibilities and an internal Brexit team led by one of its Senior Directors which focuses on Brexit related initiatives.

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) reports that it has commenced a recruitment process to fill two Brexit-related posts and it is intended that they will be filled during Q4 2017. Both posts on offer will be full-time positions. Sanction has also recently been sought for an additional Brexit-related post for the HSA which is being actively considered by the Department.

With regard to my own Department, a dedicated Brexit Unit was established in 2016 and is led at Assistant Secretary level within the EU Affairs and Trade Policy Division, to coordinate and represent the Departmental and Agencies response to Brexit and to support me in my position at the Cabinet Committee dealing with Brexit. The designated official, at Assistant Secretary level, is supported by a staff compliment of 5. An additional staffing resource is currently being recruited to support the Brexit Unit.

The work of very many Business Units is impacted by Brexit and the Department as a whole has prioritised the Brexit challenges across all its Divisions and actively keeps requirements in this regard under review. Additionally, it is intended to review the Department's workforce plan (2017-2019) as part of the Department's business planning processes for 2018 and, naturally, the demands attendant on servicing the Brexit agenda will continue to be a priority.