Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“By way of Assembly question I have established that OFMdFM employs 367 staff. Incredibly given the cut backs which have hit the public sector when it comes to frontline services the number of staff in OFMdFM has actually grown since I last asked about the issue in 2011.
“Then OFMdFM employed 358. Today the figure stands at 367.
“By way of contrast, earlier this year it was revealed that the Prime Minister employs 184.6 civil servants.
“Do Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness really need twice as many staff as the Prime Minister?
“The 367 staff employed by OFMdFM include 36 spin doctors in the Executive Information Service – and yet journalists regularly find that routine questions go unanswered for inordinate periods of time.
“Mr Robinson and McGuinness also employ 124 staff in the Orwellian sounding Equality and Strategy directorate. This “directorate” has grown by almost 50% since 2011. Ask the owners of Ashers bakery about equality in Northern Ireland. And where has been the evidence of “strategy” when it comes to OFMdFM?
“Does anyone genuinely believe that Northern Ireland can justify such a bloated Office, one which seems to do little other than feed the ego of our Joint First Ministers?”
Note to editors
Mr Allister’s most recent question about staff numbers in OFMdFM is as follows:
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail the current number of staff employed in their Department, broken down by the sections or areas in which they work.
Answer:
At 27 October 2014 there were 367 staff employed in the Department; the breakdown by business area is shown below.
|
Directorate |
Number of staff (headcount) |
|
Office of the Head of the Civil Service |
7 |
|
Resources, Regeneration, International Relations & Institutional Review |
99 |
|
Executive Services |
55 |
|
Executive Information Service |
36 |
|
North/South Ministerial Council |
12 |
|
Equality & Strategy |
124 |
|
Office of the Legislative Council |
17 |
|
Planning Appeals Commission and Water Appeals Commission (PACWAC) |
15 |
|
Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments |
2 |
|
Total |
367 |
The same question was asked in 2011 and received the following answer:
Question:
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail the current number of departmental staff employed within OFMDFM, broken down by the sections or areas in which they work.
Answer:
The table below details staff employed at 1 October 2011 within the following Departmental business areas:
|
Directorate |
Number of staff in post |
|
Head of Civil Service Office |
8 |
|
Resources, Regeneration, International Relations and Institutional Review |
92 |
|
Executive Secretariat |
73 |
|
Executive Information Service |
38 |
|
North South Ministerial Council Secretariat |
11 |
|
Equality and Strategy |
84 |
|
Office of the Legislative Counsel |
19 |
In addition, the Department employs administrative staff working in the following arms length bodies:
|
Directorate |
Number of staff in post |
|
Planning/Water Appeals Commissions |
18 |
|
Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments |
2 |
|
Office of the Attorney General |
13 |
Details on the number of staff employed by the Prime Minister are online here http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmpolcon/842/842vw29.htm