Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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168. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment if he will provide a schedule of all staff employed by or seconded to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, including their grade and-or rank; the details in respect of their position and role, including the time duration that they have been seconded to the ODCE; and if options exist for seconded staff to extend their time with the ODCE. [38623/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Since his appointment, the current Director of Corporate Enforcement has undertaken a significant restructuring of the Office 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.

Establishing the ODCE as the Corporate Enforcement Authority will give the Director greater autonomy and flexibility in terms of the ability to recruit staff with the necessary skills mix and depth of experience and will provide the Director with greater flexibility to adapt if the workload expands. The Bill is awaiting pre-legislative scrutiny at the Oireachtas Committee and I want to proceed with enactment as soon as possible.

The following table indicates a schedule of the current staff complement of ODCE by grade or rank, role and year of assignment to the ODCE.

Staff employed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and who are assigned to the ODCE may transfer back to the parent Department on request, subject to the availability of a post relevant to their grade or specific professional qualifications. The table also indicates those staff recruited by the Public Appointments Service with particular skillsets and experience, required to fill particular roles. One officer at Assistant Principal grade is on secondment to the ODCE for a period of twelve months and can request to have this period of secondment extended.

The Director of Corporate Enforcement engages directly with An Garda Síochána regarding Garda resourcing of the ODCE. The Department is aware that a request for Garda resources has been made and understands 6 assignments will be made by year-end.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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169. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment the number of vacancies that exist in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement; the length of time the vacancies have existed; and the timeframe for filling the positions. [38624/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Since his appointment, the current Director has undertaken a significant restructuring of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) 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.

Establishing the ODCE as the Corporate Enforcement Authority will give the Director greater autonomy and flexibility in terms of the ability to recruit staff with the necessary skills mix and depth of experience and will provide the Director with greater flexibility to adapt if the workload expands. The Bill is awaiting pre-legislative scrutiny at the Oireachtas Committee and I want to proceed with enactment as soon as possible.

Over recent years, a number of 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 vacant post have been reviewed and reconfigured.

The current serving staff complement of the ODCE is 36, excluding Garda resources and the number of vacancies is 6, as follows:

- Two vacant positions at Clerical Officer level, one part time post, vacant since February 2020 just before the public health emergency occurred, for whom a comparative replacement is not yet available and one full time position, vacant since September 2020 which is due to be filled by 30^thNovember 2020.

- One vacant position at Higher Executive Officer level, vacant since January 2020 and for which replacement has been impacted by the current public health emergency. It is expected that this vacancy will be filled by the end of February 2021.

- Three vacancies at Forensic Accountant level, two of which are vacant since May 2019, and one since November 2019, all of which are due to be filled from the current recruitment process which is led by the Public Appointments Service. The recruitment process is being finalised and it is expected that the appointments will be announced shortly.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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170. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment the level of resources that the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has in the context of funding, office space, capacity to work from home, vehicles, IT hardware and software; and the details of requests made by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement for additional allocation of resources and staff in respect of 2020 and 2021. [38625/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The issue of resourcing of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement is kept under review on a regular basis by the Department and the ODCE as part of the ongoing work in operationalising the transition of the ODCE to a stand-alone agency and also as part of the normal liaison on operational matters relating to the Office.

Funding

The distribution of the funding allocations for the Department’s Vote, including that of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, is determined through the annual Revised Estimates Volume (REV) process.

In 2019 an additional €1 million was provided for the ODCE to reflect the costs associated with the transition of the ODCE into a stand-alone Agency. The total funding allocation of €6.057million represented a 20% increase on the previous year. This increased funding allocation was provided again in 2020 with €3,740,000 allocated in respect of pay and €2,317,000 allocated in respect of non-Pay. The resources sought and allocated for 2021 remain unchanged.

Office space

The ODCE resides on three floors of a shared building in Parnell Square. The office space available is at capacity for current staffing levels.

In consideration of issues arising on the establishment of the ODCE as a stand-alone agency and in preparation for this change, the Director and staff of the ODCE have been working with my Department and the OPW on necessary accommodation arrangements that will likely be required following transition to the Corporate Enforcement Authority.

Capacity to work from home

The equipment available for remote working comprises a mix of encrypted mobile remote access devices and encrypted desktop PCs enabled for remote working and ensures that all that all staff are fully equipped for working from home.

Vehicles

ODCE does not have any vehicles; the Garda Unit however has vehicles available to them which are provided by An Garda Síochána.

IT Hardware and Software

The ODCE is in the process of finalising a contract for IT hardware for its forensics laboratory which will fulfil the hardware requirements of the laboratory.

All other general IT hardware is sourced through a Departmental contract and a supplementary order is currently being processed on behalf of the Office which this will fulfil the IT hardware requirements of the Office for general use. General use software is similarly sourced though Departmental contracts. Where additional and specialised software is required, the Office is fully funded to source it through procurement procedures.

Requests made by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement for additional allocation of resources and staff in respect of 2020 and 2021

As I said previously, in 2019 an additional €1 million was provided for the ODCE to reflect the costs associated with the transition of the ODCE into a stand-alone Agency.In 2020 a total allocation of €6,057,000 was provided for the ODCE, €3,740,000 allocated in respect of pay and €2,317,000 allocated in respect of non-Pay. An additional €1,874,000 had initially been requested by the ODCE for 2020 for non-pay purposes to cover potential legal and rental costs. These costs did not materialise in 2020.

With respect to Garda resources, while the Companies Act 2014 provides for the secondment of Gardaí to the ODCE, the Director and the Garda Commissioner are independent in their functions and the assignment of Gardaí to the ODCE is an operational matter for both the Director and the Commissioner. The Director of Corporate Enforcement engages directly with An Garda Síochána regarding Garda resourcing of the ODCE. The Department is aware that a request for Garda resources has been made and 6 officers are expected to be assigned by year-end.

In terms of civilian staffing resources, as part of the work underway to progress the transition of the ODCE to the Corporate Enforcement Authority, the Department and the ODCE are working closely in assessing and identifying the specific posts that will be required for the future operation and governance of the proposed new agency.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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171. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment the number of gardaí and Revenue Commissioners’ officers currently working in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement by grade and rank. [38626/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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With respect to Garda resources, while the Companies Act 2014 provides for the secondment of Gardaí to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), the Director and the Garda Commissioner are independent in their functions and the assignment of Gardaí to the ODCE is an operational matter for both the Director and the Commissioner.

There are currently 8 members of An Garda Síochána seconded to ODCE from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, as follows:

- 1 Detective Inspector

- 3 Detective Sergeant

- 4 Detective Garda

The Department is aware that a request for Garda resources has been made and 6 assignments will be made by year-end.

There are no officers from the Revenue Commissioners working in the ODCE but there is close liaison with the Revenue Commissioner where appropriate.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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172. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment the number of data access requests the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has made to telecom companies and social media companies here in the past three years to date in 2020 under the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011; the number of access requests that were approved and declined by the companies that the data was requested from; and the reason the data was sought. [38852/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Any requests made by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement to companies are operational matters for the ODCE. Section 949(3) of the Companies Act 2014 provides that the Director of Corporate Enforcement shall be independent in the performance of his statutory functions. I, as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Innovation have no direct function in such matters.

I am informed by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement that the provisions of the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 do not currently extend to the Director of Corporate Enforcement.