asked the Minister for the Public Service if he is aware of the continuing uncertainty of the status and conditions of employment of those employed as secretarial assistants to Deputies; and if he will indicate the progress made in preparation of legislation to regularise their position.

The status of secretarial assistants to Deputies is that they are employees of the political parties or of individual Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas who are paid out of public funds.

I am aware that the absence of an explicit statutory basis for current arrangements regarding secretarial assistants may have given rise to the uncertainty to which the Deputy refers.

I intend to introduce legislation at an early date to deal with this matter.

I want to raise two points. First, the Minister for Finance indicated last November that he proposed introducing legislation. Could this Minister be more specific and let us know when it is expected to introduce this legislation? Second, could he explain how last November the Minister for Finance was unable to say who the employers were and indicated that the political parties or individual Deputies were the nominators of the secretarial assistants, but now he says the Deputies and the political parties are the employers?

The Deputy is correct in saying that this matter was adverted to by the Minister for Finance last year. Since that time, following further consideration, it was decided that it might be more appropriate were I to deal with the matter. The preparation of legislation is now being dealt with in my Department. I do not want to appear unhelpful but so far as the introductory date for the legislation is concerned, I can say no more than that it will be introduced next year. It will not be introduced this session as there are only a short number of weeks left. I hope that as a result of the clarification of the situation through the introduction of legislation, the position regarding the employment of secretaries and the appropriate numbers allocated to the parties will be regularised.

Would the Minister tell us how his Department arrived at the conclusion that the secretaries are the employees of Deputies?

I said that the secretaries are employees of the political parties and in the case of the relatively small number of Deputies who are not Members of recognised parties but are independent Deputies, they are the employers.

In view of the fact that salaries are paid by the Department of the Public Service, would it not be more correct to say that they are employees of that Department?

Salaries are not paid by my Department.

(Dublin North-West): Under the proposed legislation, will the secretarial staff have more permanency?

Perhaps you could wait until the legislation is introduced.

The legislation will give a statutory basis for the employment of staff and from that point of view it will be welcomed by them. There is the question of determining the principles involved with the political parties and as soon as that has been determined I hope it will be possible to introduce the legislation without any undue delay.

A final supplementary.

This is a very important matter for 165 and more secretaries.

We cannot debate every question.

If the Department do not pay these salaries, with whom do the secretaries negotiate their conditions of employment, their rates of pay, increments and so on?

At the moment the secretarial assistants conduct whatever negotiations are necessary with the political parties, who, as I said, are the employers. It is hoped when legislation is introduced that that position will be clarified and that we will be in a position to ensure that all Deputies have equal treatment in so far as the assignment of secretarial assistants and supervisory staff is concerned. It is also hoped that an equal number of secretarial assistants and supervisory staff pro rata to the size of the political parties will be assigned to each of the parties.

The Minister is being evasive. Could he specifically state who pays the secretaries?

I am not sure. The Deputy suggested earlier that my Department paid the secretaries and I have explained that they do not.

Who does pay them?

I assume they are paid from the Vote of the Houses of the Oireachtas.