Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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717. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide the details of the name, salary, position and roles of persons who are being paid for by his Department for secondment to another public, private or semi private entity in tabular form following the announcement that the salary of a person (details supplied) being seconded to Trinity College, Dublin will be paid by the Department of Health; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19549/22]

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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731. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will outline all of the secondment arrangements within his Department; the conditions related to such secondments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19869/22]

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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747. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of persons currently employed in his Department who have been seconded in from the public sector; the number of Departmental officials seconded where the monies are recouped from the body the person is seconded to or where the Department pays for the person with no recoupment from the other organisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20062/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 717, 731 and 747 together.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has a number of secondment agreements in place with other public sector organisations, European institutions, international organisations, and private sector organisations.

Outward secondments assist in building the Department’s strategic relationships with number of key organisations with a prominent role in defining policy approaches on issues of importance to Ireland.  This includes EU institutions and other multilateral organisations.  In addition, secondments provide officers with significant opportunities to broaden their skills and experience.

The Department of Foreign Affairs occasionally uses secondments to fill key specialised roles associated with time-bound projects and to facilitate temporary staff exchanges with strategic partners across the public and private sectors.

My Department also facilitates the regular inward secondment of officers from across Government Departments for posting to our network of overseas missions in order to ensure that appropriate resources are in place to promote, protect and advance Ireland’s key interests and values. At present, there are 127 such posts across our mission network, all of which are regularly advertised within the respective parent Departments. Costs are recouped from the relevant parent Department for 86 of these posts. Details of posts where full or partial costs are paid from my Department’s budget are set out in tabular form below.

Civil Servants seconded to my Department remain within Civil Service grade structures for pay purposes.