Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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1226. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the employment control framework is still relevant to the higher education sector (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20949/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The existing Employment Control Framework approach, which has been in place since 2011, is still in place in a number of sectors in the public service including the Higher Education Sector.  Officials from my Department are engaged on an ongoing basis with their counterparts in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Higher Education Authority to agree principles for a new Higher Education Staffing Agreement.  This work will include a wider consultation with stakeholders in Q2 2022 prior to any agreement being finalised.

The purpose of the new Higher Education Staffing Agreement, once finalised, will be to update the current Employment Control Framework and give particular consideration to :

- the different categories of staff;

- alignment with new funding streams and contractual commitments in the sector;

- the need for staffing decisions taken in the higher education sector to be affordable and sustainable both from a higher education perspective and also from an Exchequer and wider public service staffing and pension perspective.

It is important to highlight that the Employment Control Framework ceilings for the Higher Education sector are updated on an annual basis having regard to the funding decisions made as part of the annual Estimates process, and which is then operationalised by the Higher Education Authority across all Higher Education Institutions.  I would highlight that overall staffing in the sector, both core and non-core, has increased by approximately 4,500 or 18 percent since 2016.

My Department will continue to interact with the sector, the HEA and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to make progress in the light of employment data across the sector and the potential to improve the sustainability of arrangements within the resources available.