Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The figures are becoming more reliable. There were enormous changes this year because of the February deadline, when large numbers left the public service. Furthermore, if people were 60 years or over and had the requisite service, they could also leave after February. There was an enormous transformation in terms of the numbers exiting the service this year alone. We are confident that the figures we have put into the public domain, in terms of the total numbers in the public sector, are correct. There will always be some variation from one sector to the next, particularly in sectors like health and education because they account for a huge proportion of the total. The figure for the total number of public servants, excluding those working for local authorities, in 2009 was 278,106. That was the average number. In 2012, the figure is 264,421.

Other areas of public sector reform include redeployment, shared services, altered working conditions and so forth and these must be forthcoming to prove to the public that we can do more with less and achieve greater efficiencies in the public service.