Even clerk typists in the Chief State Solicitor's office are leaving for higher-paid jobs in the private sector, according to the Chief State Solicitor, Mr Michael Buckley. There they can earn more than qualified solicitors do in his office.
Mr Buckley was answering questions at a meeting of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee yesterday. Mr Michael Bell asked whether the situation had improved since he had written to the committee about a year ago. Mr Buckley said the situation had got worse as far as staffing and overwork were concerned.
"People are working in the evenings and at weekends. We find it hard to recruit. The levels of pay in the private sector are far in advance of what we can pay. We get people that stay for a year and then go for far more pay. It's soul-destroying to see staff you trained go after a year."
Mr Buckley said that one case, where 10 actions had arisen out of the same incident involving a meat factory, had been handled by one senior solicitor. The Department of Finance had offered three "recruit" solicitors (on contract), but his experience was that they would stay for three months and then go. A new team of solicitors would then have to read into the case.
He decided to hand the case over to a firm of private solicitors. He had learned that in this firm there were seven solicitors and nine support staff dealing with it.
"If staff are overworked and underpaid to the extent you describe, it is a serious matter," said Mr Pat Rabbitte. "Does this mean that in 20 years' time the CSSO will be staffed by less aggressive performers? It would be a very serious situation if it was staffed by third-rank people."
He asked Mr Patrick Howard, from the Department of Finance, if it would be possible to set up the CSSO on an independent basis, similar to the National Treasury Management Agency, to allow staff to be recruited at market rates. Mr Howard said every department thought it had a unique claim to more resources. Policy on dealing with this matter was very much subject to Government policy. He said there was no way the State could compete with the private sector on the legal front.