Government departments have approached corporate law and accountancy firms to temporarily lend some staff to the Civil Service for the duration of Ireland’s EU presidency in the second half of this year.
The Department of Enterprise is talking to several large corporate firms about “seconding” some employees into the public sector, to provide legal and technical expertise when the Republic takes over the influential EU role.
Ireland will assume the EU council presidency, which rotates between member states every six months, from July 1st until the end of the year. The presidency will involve Irish ministers, diplomats and officials steering policy debates at EU-level, to negotiate common positions and compromises between the 27 national governments.
The Cabinet is due to be briefed in detail next week about preparations taking place and the extent of the logistical undertaking involved.
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But there is concern at the highest level of the Government that the increased workload could cause a slowdown in the day-to-day work of departments on national legislation and other plans.
Senior officials have been cautioned against letting focus drift from the Government’s domestic agenda when Ireland takes on the EU presidency.
At least two departments are planning to temporarily borrow staff from private sector companies and organisations, to help out during the six-month period, The Irish Times has learned.
The Department of Enterprise has approached a number of big corporate law, consultancy and accountancy firms, about seconding some of their staff to the department.
While temporary transfers of staff, or secondments, are common within the public sector, it is unusual for staff to be loaned from the private sector into the Civil Service.
It is understood the salaries of the staff would largely be covered by their original employer.
“Discussions with firms that have expressed interest are still ongoing, so no final numbers have been agreed” but the total number of private sector staff taking part in the scheme would be “in the single digits”, a department spokesman said.
The employees would bring “valuable sectoral knowledge and project management expertise” to the department, the spokesman said. Temporary staff from law firms would assist officials during complex EU legislative negotiations, he said.
The Department of Climate is running a similar scheme to temporarily take on a handful of legal and policy experts from “sponsoring employers”, for the presidency.
There is significant concern inside Government that attention inside the system will be pulled away from the national agenda, particularly in key areas such as housing and infrastructure delivery.
John Callinan, secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach, told a recent meeting of the State’s most senior civil servants that momentum on domestic priorities could not be allowed to slow or take a back seat, according to one source briefed on the discussion.
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Planning is at an advanced stage to host more than 20 separate meetings of ministers from the other 26 EU states in the Republic during the presidency, as well as a summit of 47 European leaders in Dublin in November.
The majority of the minister-level meetings will be held in Dublin, although preparations have taken place to host gatherings of EU ministers in Wicklow, Cork, Limerick, Mayo, Kerry and potentially Westmeath, with some ministers keen to bring meetings to their constituencies.
The final regional spread of the meetings is still to be signed off by Cabinet. In total, there will be some 270 presidency events in Ireland, with about a quarter held outside Dublin.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the other 26 EU commissioners will visit Cork at the start of Ireland’s presidency in July. Irish Ministers will also each address the European Parliament, in 20 separate appearances.
