Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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805. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of housing maintenance workers that currently work for Cork County Council; the measures his Department is taking to encourage employment in local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1691/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he/she is responsible. My Department oversees strategic workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of overall local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis.

However, granular data, in terms of the detailed breakdown of the numbers and grades of staff allocated to specific work areas within local authorities is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information would be available from Cork County Council.

The local government sector is working on a continual basis to become an employer of choice and is supported in this regard by the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA). The jobs portal www.localgovernmentjobs.ie is a key tool utilised by the sector to advertise posts and to disseminate information on the types of roles in the sector and the benefits of working in a local authority. I understand that some of the many initiatives undertaken include social media campaigns, attendance at graduate fairs, a graduate recruitment programme and participation in the WAM (Willing Able Mentoring) work placement programme.

In addition, the LGMA, with the support of my Department, have recently developed a new Strategic Framework for Workforce Planning for the local government sector to guide the strategic workforce planning processes and deliver key HR reforms across the sector. The twenty strategic actions included in the Framework document have been developed under six themes to ensure that local authority staff have the capacity and capability to respond to shared challenges into the long term, including under the theme of further enhancement of the sector as an employer of choice. In this specific regard, the actions include promoting the sector as an employer of choice, implementing the local government recruitment communications strategy, raising awareness of the diverse, impactful, and valuable work of the local government sector as part of the wider public service and promoting career opportunities and the potential for development and progression offered by working in local government. The Strategic Framework for Workforce Planning is available to view on my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/policy/61d9b3-local-government/#human-resources.

One action under the theme of enhancing the sector as an employer of choice is to develop further opportunities for apprentices in the sector. My Department has been engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to implement and deliver the agreed actions under the Public Service Apprenticeship Plan 2022-2025 and recently circulated the publication “Employing Apprentices: A Practical Guide for the Public Service”, which aims to provide information for Public Service organisations seeking to employ apprentices, to each local authority.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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806. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there is a coordinated policy for local authorities in relation to the way they deal with large levels of snowfall; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1696/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is designated as the Lead Government Department for co-ordinating the whole-of-Government response to severe weather and flooding emergencies, supporting local response agencies, including local authorities. The Crisis Management Team of my Department's National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM) have responsibility for co-ordination of the response to severe weather events.

With respect to severe weather events, 'A Framework for Major Emergency Management' (2006) underpins major emergency preparedness and response in Ireland. Since 2008, major emergency plans have been introduced in local authorities, the HSE and An Garda Síochána. The Framework sets out the arrangements by which the principal response agencies will work together in the management of large scale emergencies.

Each local authority has a plan in place for responding to severe weather emergencies. These plans cover the local authority response to frost/ice, heavy snow, severe winds/storms, heavy rain and/or flooding. During such events, each local authority activates its Severe Weather Assessment Team (SWAT) to monitor and support all aspects of the local authority response, to co-ordinate with the other principal response agencies and to link into the national response, as and when it is necessary.

As well as Severe Weather Plans, each local authority has a Winter Maintenance Plan, setting out how that authority provides its winter service for ice and snow conditions across transport routes. The Department of Transport co-ordinate this work with local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.