Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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240. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the current levels of staffing in the Office of the Information Commissioner; the current number of vacant positions; and the total target workforce. [29863/24]

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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241. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the current levels of staffing in the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information; the current number of vacant positions; and the total target workforce. [29864/24]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 240 and 241 together.

The Office of the Ombudsman that it consists of six separate statutory functions, funded via one vote. The statutory functions share office space, ICT staff and systems, legal and HR support as well as procurement and finance staff. This approach gives the Office functional independence across core work areas, but allows it to realise the benefits and economies of scale.

That vote is broken down into three programme subheads. One of these subheads represents two of the Office’s statutory functions - the Office of the Information Commissioner and the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information. Accordingly, the figures provided are in respect of that programme area.

The staffing allocation for the overall Vote as per REV 2024 is 36. The staff complement at the end of Q2 2024 is 31, including three staff on maternity leave. Currently, there are five vacancies.