Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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734. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number and role of persons employed by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement to date in 2019, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35663/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The total number of staff assigned to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) on the 02 September 2019 was 37 staff in total (34.4 full time equivalent). The breakdown by grade is set out in the following table.

The number of Gardaí assigned to the ODCE on 02 September 2019 was 7.

There were no appointments to the ODCE to date in 2019. There are currently five vacancies, one at Corporate Compliance Manager, two Forensic Accountants, one Executive Officer and one Clerical Officer.

In relation to the post of Corporate Compliance Manager, the current Director is considering this as part of a significant restructuring of the ODCE that he has undertaken to better reflect the organisation’s needs in the context of both its strategic shift towards deploying resources towards more serious indications of wrongdoing and the increasingly complex environment within which the ODCE operates.

That restructuring has included the recruitment of a number of additional professional staff, including eight accounting professionals (one of whom was promoted to Enforcement Portfolio Manager), two Enforcement Portfolio Managers, two Enforcement Lawyers and a Digital Forensics Specialist, together with significant investment in a digital forensics laboratory, training and development. The recruitment and assimilation of a large number of new professional staff into a multi-disciplinary organisation that undertakes complex work in a fast-moving environment is a project that requires careful management. As such, the Director is of the view that it is preferable to allow that process to fully bed down before filling the Corporate Compliance manager vacancy. The Director is further conscious of the fact that the transition of the ODCE to an independent Agency will give rise to additional expertise requirements and, as such, is of the view that it is prudent that those considerations should be factored into developing the role, and associated skill set, required of the appointee.