Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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873. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the current status of local authority access officers; if this role is filled in each local authority; whether the role is full-time or part-time; and what grade the access officer role is in each Local Authority [11335/25]

James Browne (Wexford, 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. Section 63(3) of the Local Government Act 2001 provides that, subject to law, a local authority is independent in the performance of its functions.

The Disability Act 2005 places a statutory obligation on public bodies, including local authorities, to support access to services and facilities, for people with disabilities. Under Section 26(2) of the Disability Act 2005 each public body is required to have at least one officer authorised to act in the capacity of an access officer.

My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of 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 number, grades and types of employment of staff assigned to particular functions in each local authority is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information would be available from each local authority.