David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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532. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of full-time equivalent staff attached to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement in each of the years 1996 to 2017 and to date in 2018, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35943/18]

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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535. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of staff by position in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement in each of the years 2007 to 2017, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35946/18]

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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536. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of staff by job title in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement in each of the years 2007 to 2017, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35947/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 532, 535 and 536 together.

The Office of Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) was established under the Company Law Enforcement Act 2001 to enforce and encourage compliance with company law. The ODCE continues its work under the Companies Act 2014. The following table sets out the number of staff and their grade (position/job title) attached to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement in each of the years since it was established in 2001 to 2017 and to date in 2018.

No. of staff 1serving in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) (2001-2018)

table continuing

(2)Staffing as at 5th September 2018

(3)The ODCE also has an approved complement of seven members of An Garda Siochana (one Detective Inspector, two Detective Sergeants and four Detective Gardai). There is currently a vacancy at Detective Inspector level.

Following his appointment in the latter half of 2012, the Director carried out a review of the ODCE’s then skills mix and operational capacity. That review, inter alia, identified certain skill deficiencies, as a consequence of which sanction was sought, and subsequently obtained, to recruit a number of additional professional staff to address the identified need.

Further to that process, the Department, through the Public Appointments Service, recruited six suitably qualified and experienced forensic accountants (although one was later successful in another recruitment campaign) together with a suitably qualified and experienced digital forensics specialist, for assignment to the ODCE.

Over recent years, a number of senior-level vacancies have arisen within the ODCE through a combination of retirement, promotion and transfer to other parts of the public service. In that context, the skill sets, competencies, roles and responsibilities associated with each of those posts have been reviewed and reconfigured by the Director to better reflect the organisation’s current needs. That exercise has resulted in two senior-level professional posts of Enforcement Portfolio Manager being created. Both of these posts having been filled through recruitment campaigns led by the Public Appointments Service. Public Appointments Service ran a recruitment campaign for the positions of Enforcement Lawyer and two remaining Forensic Accountant (Professional Accountant Grade 1) positions on 26th January 2018. One Enforcement Lawyer was appointed to the ODCE on 11th June 2018 and the second will be appointed on 1st October, 2018 . Two Forensic Accountants were identified from this competition and one was appointed on 8th May 2018 and the second on 23rd July 2018.

The ODCE also has an approved complement of seven members of An Garda Síochána (one Detective Inspector, two Detective Sergeants and four Detective Gardaí). At this time, there is one vacancy in that approved complement, i.e., the Detective inspector post. The filling of that post is a matter for the Commissioner.