Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Such recruitment is in the programme for Government. There is some debate about it and I would be interested to hear the Deputy's view. My view is that Secretary General level is too high a grade, because it means coming in without knowing the structure. Principal officer level is probably the best grade at which to come into the service, although we have recruited a very capable assistant secretary to be a director of the office of reform on a contract basis. Our new recruits are on contracts. The new procurement officer will be on contract. Again, the officer is from the private sphere. Virtually all recruits to the senior positions in my Department have come from the private sphere, to run the business end of what we must do. Perhaps that must be replicated elsewhere.

However, I refer back to a point I made earlier. We must also make the public sphere attractive. Some of the analysis we have carried out shows that it is not only the money that is relevant. It is also the spotlight and the critique that falls upon people who move into the public sphere. That does not apply in the private sphere. Scrutiny and accountability are important, as long as they are balanced.

I fully subscribe to the notion that there must be far more cross-pollination between the public and private sectors. We are working on that. The Government recently agreed to proposals to second people from the public service to the private sector for a year to gain experience there. That is a good thing. Obviously, there are issues with this. Often some of the big accounting companies offer to let senior people come in and work with the Department for six months, for example. However, there are issues surrounding what line of work they can work on before they go back. Might they have insider knowledge when they go back? That is a balance we must get right as well.