Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 58: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which applications for redeployment throughout the public service have been met to date with particular reference to addressing the need for extra staff in areas and Departments most affected by the economic situation; if any assessment has been done to identify the number of requests for redeployment or transfer within or between various branches of the service with emphasis on the extra workload in some sectors while at the same time meeting in so far as possible individual requests for transfers or exchanges within and between Departments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28501/11]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 206: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which the various Government Departments, local authorities and health service have experienced increased or reduced staffing levels through redeployment or otherwise in the past five years and to date in 2011; if the various sectors remain to be effective and cost effective in terms of meeting the new challenges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28859/11]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 208: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to review or reform the structures affecting public or civil servants seeking transfers or relocation within or inter-Department with a view to achieving a more streamlined and seamless response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28861/11]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 58, 206 and 208 together.

Ensuring a more flexible and responsive public service is a key element of the Government's reform programme. Measures to increase staff mobility and to ensure that resources are allocated to priority areas in a timely and strategic manner will form part of the reform programme implementation plan, which is currently being developed in my Department. My Department will prepare the legislation necessary to remove legislative barriers to cross-sectoral redeployment and to address other issues that might arise on changing employer. Much of the data the Deputy is seeking is readily available on my Department's website, www.per.gov.ie, including employment numbers by sector and year. Again, in relation to the wider public service such data is published, as matter of course, by the various public bodies.

The deployment and management of staff are primarily a matter for the head of a Department or other body in the first instance, having regard to its employment control framework (ECF), policy and operational priorities and the budgets available. Changes in the services provided and their delivery, in the allocation of work and in the use of information technology are taking place on an ongoing basis within the public service, against a background of falling numbers. Significant redeployment of staff and reassignment of work has taken place in that context.

The Public Service Agreement 2010-14 (Croke Park Agreement) provides for agreed redeployment arrangements to apply in the Civil Service and in other parts of the public service, and for these arrangements to take precedence over other methods of filling vacancies. In general redeployment opportunities are to be sought in the first instance within each sector (e.g. health, education, local authority, etc.). Redeployment allows staff to be moved from activities which are of lesser priority, or which have been rationalised, reconfigured, or restructured, to areas of greater need. In practical terms these arrangements represent a means of facilitating the targeted reduction in public service numbers in the period to 2014 while sustaining the ongoing delivery of services. The progress made in implementing the provisions of the Croke Park Agreement, including examples of progress on redeploying public servants within and across sectors of the public service, are set out in the website of the Implementation Body at http://implementationbody.gov.ie/progress-and-delivery/.

The reorganisation of Ministerial responsibilities earlier this year involved several transfers of functions between Departments which resulted in exchanges of staff and resources, often at multiple locations. This process also included transfers and reassignment of staff to achieve the best organisational fit and, in some cases, redeployment to meet priority needs in other organisations in particular locations. There has also been a substantial redeployment of staff in the context of structural re-organisations or levies, both of which are specifically recognised in the Croke Park Agreement. For example, in recent years over 500 staff transferred, mainly under levies and trawls, to the Department of Social Protection and to the CSO for Census 2011. A further 2,000 or so HSE and FÁS staff are transferring to the Department of Social Protection with their functions.

The Public Appointments Service (PAS) has put in place a system of Resource Panels of Civil Service and State Agency staff to support the redeployment processes in those sectors agreed under the Croke Park Agreement. It is a matter for the employer to identify the number and grades of posts to be redeployed in the first instance and to upload the posts onto the PAS panels. Posts to be filled by redeployment are offered in the first instance to the relevant panel or panels. My Department is working on an ongoing basis with PAS and other stakeholders to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the redeployment processes and of the panel system in particular.

Where staff are not available for redeployment in a particular location, the post, if approved for filling by my Department, may be offered to staff who had already indicated an interest in transferring there, whether directly to the Department concerned or through the Central Applications Facility (CAF). Since 2003, the CAF has also facilitated the wishes of substantial numbers of public servants to transfer to alternative locations under the Decentralisation Programme. However, the possibilities to facilitate requests for such transfers are now more limited due to ongoing reductions in public service numbers and the necessity for redeployment to take precedence. The Senior Public Service (SPS) provides mobility opportunities for Assistant Secretaries to move to posts at equivalent level within the civil service. As the SPS is extended to the wider public service, mobility will be extended on an incremental basis.