Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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87. To ask the Taoiseach the number of persons employed on an agency basis in his Department and in each agency under his aegis. [50812/19]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department currently avails of a contract cleaning service as a temporary measure to ensure that service levels in my Department are maintained while a recruitment process for additional cleaning staff is undertaken. In this regard, there is currently one contract cleaner employed on an agency basis in my Department. There are no agency staff currently employed by the National Economic & Social Development Office (NESDO) which is the only body under the aegis of my Department.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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88. To ask the Taoiseach the budget and number of staff working in his Department in each of the years 2014 to 2018 and to date in 2019, in tabular form. [51080/19]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The information requested in respect of the years 2014 - 2018 is detailed in the following table.

There are currently 221.65 whole time equivalent staff employed in my Department. The administration pay budget for 2019 is €16.046 million. The increase in staff numbers reflects the additional responsibilities assigned to my Department in respect of climate action, national security, policing reform and Brexit.

My Department funds a number of inquiries including the Moriarty Tribunal (Est. 1997), the Cregan Commission (Est. 2015) and the Cooke Commission (Est. 2017). The average cost of inquiries to my Department for the period 2014 - 2018 was €5.246 million per year. In 2017 the cost of inquiries to my Department was €8.955 million. Commissions of Investigation and Tribunals of Inquiry are independent in their operation.