I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 and 19 together.
Neither the Department of the Taoiseach nor the National Economic and Social Development Office (NESDO), which is the only body under the aegis of the Department, currently outsource any service officer or security officer roles to private companies.
While the Department occasionally engages cleaners on an ad hoc basis for carpet cleaning and paving stone cleaning, the only cleaning service outsourced on a formal contract basis relates to window cleaning. This service is currently under a two year contract the value of which is €15,000.
NESDO outsources cleaning services as part of a contract which is shared with the four tenants in the building where it is located. The length of the contract is from 7th March 2024 to 3rd January 2026 and NESDO’s portion of the costs to December 2024 was €9,446.73.
The number of staff directly employed by the Department of the Taoiseach in the grades referred to in the question are highlighted in the table below. The current salary rates for General Service Grades used by the Department are set out in Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Circular 14/2024. NESDO does not directly employ any staff in these grades.
|
Role
|
No. of Staff
|
WTE
|
|
Services Officer
|
9
|
8.2
|
|
Services Attendant
|
2
|
2
|
|
Cleaner
|
7
|
7
|
|
Total
|
18
|
17.2
|