Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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91. To ask the Taoiseach the number of staff in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement in each of the years 2010 to 2016 and to date in 2017, by account, administrative staff, legal personnel and other staff, in tabular form; the amount of funding allocated to the ODCE in each of the years 2014 to 2016 and to date in 2017 and the allocation for 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50931/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy is provided in the table:

1. No. of staff¹serving in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) (2010-2017)

¹Refers to number of FTE’s

²If further information is required regarding the job specification, an organisation chart is included in each of the ODCE’s Annual Reports since its inception, which are published on its website .

³ Staffing as at 29^thNovember 2017

⁴ A staff complement of 7 Gardaí are assigned to the ODCE to assist with its criminal investigation / prosecution functions. Additional resources were assigned to the Office in the period 2010-2013 to assist in the Anglo Irish Bank investigation.

The following information is of relevance in interpreting the data set out in the Table above.

The ODCE traditionally had 3 Legal Advisers. One of the post holders retired in 2016 and the Principal Solicitor post holder transferred out of the ODCE in January 2017. The Director reconfigured the job specifications associated with both roles to better reflect the organisation’s current and future needs, on foot of which a competition was held to recruit 2 Enforcement Portfolio Managers. One of those posts has recently been filled and the other successful candidate is due to take up the role in the coming weeks.

A second Legal Adviser post holder transferred out of the ODCE in June 2017. The Director has, similarly, reconfigured the job specification associated with that role to better reflect the organisation’s current and future needs. As a consequence, the Department is currently engaging with the Public Appointments Service with a view to recruiting an Enforcement Lawyer. That position is expected to be advertised in the coming weeks.

The Digital Forensics Specialist is a new role that was created following a review, undertaken by the Director of the ODCE’s skills mix and capabilities.

Similarly, 5 new Forensic Accountant posts were created following the aforementioned review (bringing to 7 the number of approved posts). Following two open competitions, 6 Forensic Accountants were recruited, of which one has since been promoted. A third competition, aimed at filling the 2 vacancies, is scheduled to be advertised in the coming weeks.

The Compliance Manager post fell vacant in November 2016, following the promotion of the post holder. The Director has indicated that this post, similarly, requires to be reconfigured to better reflect the ODCE’s current and future needs. However, prioritisation has been afforded to filling the Forensic Accountant, Digital Forensics Specialist, Enforcement Portfolio Manager and Enforcement Lawyer posts respectively and to assimilating a substantial number of new, and senior, staff into the organisation.

Reflective of the process of further professionalisation of the ODCE that has been underway over the past 5 years, the significant increase in professional staff has been accompanied by a reduction in staff numbers in certain general civil service grades.

An Inspector has been assigned to the ODCE by Garda management in recent days, as a consequence of which the ODCE is now at its approved Garda complement of 7 staff.

2. Amount of funding allocated to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) (2014-2017)

⁵ Data as at 31^stOctober 2017

In terms of the underspend in recent years, a significant element of the non-pay allocation provided to the ODCE provides for possible legal costs. These costs, as well as their timing, are difficult to forecast as the ODCE has little or no control over the timing of when the cases will be determined. It is also the case that the ODCE cannot be sure of the outcome of cases in terms of costs orders and it cannot anticipate the scale of costs that other parties may seek. Whilst it is entirely prudent that provision continue to be made to meet legal costs in the ODCE’s subhead, a corollary is uncertainty in relation to the amount and timing etc. of such costs.

Specific provision was made in the Office’s pay allocation from 2015 to allow for the recruitment of additional staff, including additional specialist staff such as forensic accountants and a digital forensic specialist. The reality, however, has been that notwithstanding the increased pay allocation, it has taken some time to effect the recruitment of the specialist staff concerned, as the Department, in common with many other State organisations, faces significant challenges in the recruitment of high quality professional staff.

The pay related costs for the Gardaí assigned to the ODCE are borne by the Department of Justice and Equality and such pay costs are not reflected in the financial table above.

The distribution of the 2018 allocations across my Department's Vote, including that of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, will be determined through the 2018 Revised Estimates Volume (REV) process. It is expected that publication of the 2018 REV allocations will be made by my colleague, the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform in early December 2018.