Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2019.

• Published date: 19 November 2019
• Statutory Instrument No.: 568/2019

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 19th November, 2019.

The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by section 2 (1)(c) of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) Act 1962 (No. 32 of 1962) ( section 2 having been replaced by the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act 1992 (No. 3 of 1992), and paragraph (c) having been inserted by the Oireachtas (Miscellaneous Provisions) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act 1996 (No. 39 of 1996)), and by section 10 (5) and (13) (inserted by section 2 of the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Act 2014 (No. 6 of 2014)) of the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act 1938 (No. 38 of 1938), and by section 4 (3) of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Act 2003 (No. 28 of 2003) (as amended by section 3 (c) of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) Act 2018 (No. 41 of 2018)) as well as by the amendment of Schedule 1 to that Act (as inserted by section 3 of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2012 (No. 50 of 2012)) by section 6 of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) Act 2015 (No. 53 of 2015), hereby makes the following regulations:

Citation and collective citation

1. (a) These Regulations may be cited as the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2019.

(b) The Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) Regulations 2016 ( S.I. No. 599 of 2016 ), the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 426 of 2018), the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 167 of 2019), and these Regulations may be cited together as the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) Regulations 2016 to 2019, and shall be construed together as one.

Definitions.

2. In these Regulations—

“Principal Regulations” means the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) Regulations 2016, and

“Regulations of 2018” means the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) (Amendment) Regulations 2018.

Secretarial assistance for qualifying parties with elected members on Oireachtas Committees

3. The Principal Regulations are amended—

(a) by the substitution of the following for the definition (as substituted by the Regulations of 2018) of “information systems facilities” in Regulation 2—

“‘information systems facilities’ are those facilities (including equipment) provision of which is contemplated by Regulations 8, 8A, and 10A;”,

and

(b) by the insertion of the following Regulation after Regulation 10—

“10A. (1) For the purpose of this Regulation and Schedule 2A a specified party means a qualifying party that is identified in Schedule 2A.

(2) A specified party is, without prejudice to any entitlement of that qualifying party under Regulation 10 of these Regulations or under Regulation 3A of the Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Secretarial Facilities) (Amendment) Regulations 2018, also entitled to secretarial facilities consisting of employees in accordance with the allocation set out in Schedule 2A.

(3) The allocation referred to in paragraph (2) and Schedule 2A must be applied subject to the following:

(a) for the purpose of reckoning each specified party’s entitlement in accordance with Schedule 2A, and, where the context requires, in construing any reference in this Regulation to an employee or to employees, each employee is assumed to be retained at the grade of administrative assistant,

(b) persons employed by specified parties under this Regulation may be employed by those parties at the grade of administrative assistant, or at the grades of secretarial assistant, administrator, or chef de cabinet, or at such other grades as may be established from time to time by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform; the equivalence of those other grades to the grade of administrative assistant and the manner in which, and the extent to which, they may be combined by specified parties is determined from time to time by the Commission, and

(c) employees to which a specified party is entitled under this Regulation may engage in work sharing arrangements analogous to those contemplated by Regulation 3(1), Regulation 5(1), and Regulation 7(1)(a), (2), and (3)(a).

(4) (a) Every specified party is entitled to secretarial facilities consisting of 1 suite of computer equipment specified in Part 1 of Schedule 1A and to the other facilities specified in Part 2 of that Schedule for each employee or equivalent to ½ of an employee provided for in this Regulation and Schedule 2A.

(b) Should any of the employees to which a specified party is entitled under this Regulation be permitted to engage in work sharing arrangements analogous to those contemplated by Regulation 3(1), Regulation 5(1), and Regulation 7(1)(a), (2), and (3)(a), a maximum of one additional suite of computer equipment, as specified in Part 1 of Schedule 1A, may be issued to the specified party in question.

(5) For the avoidance of doubt and where the context admits, any reference in Regulations 12 or 13 to a qualifying party extends to that party in its capacity as a specified party under this Regulation.

(6) This Regulation, subject to like administrative arrangements as apply to the provision of secretarial facilities under Regulation 10, continues in force solely for the duration of the 32nd Dáil Éireann.”.

Amendment of the Principal Regulations – updated description of ICT facilities provided

4. The Principal Regulations are amended in Part 1 of Schedule 1 as follows—

(a) in paragraph (a) by deleting “, the system for the transmission and receipt of fax messages having been integrated into the e-mail system on that network”,

(b) in paragraph (b) by inserting “access to” before “a multi-function”,

(c) by deleting paragraph (e), and

(d) in paragraph (f), by deleting “hardware,”.

Amendment of the Principal Regulations – new Schedules 1A and 2A

5. The Principal Regulations are amended—

(a) by the insertion after Schedule 1 of the schedule set forth in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations, and

(b) by...