Mr. Rob O'Toole:

There are two points to mention with regard to the mobility scheme. The first is that it is for the Department to decide where roles are based. The more senior roles, such as principal officer and assistant principal level for example, are advertised and sent out. The location is decided by the organisation. The Deputy is correct. Moves under the mobility scheme are permanent. That is an important point. With regard to mobility at the level of clerical officer and executive officer, if there is a requirement for Irish, it is possible to move down the panel. At those levels, your position on the list is based on length of service. That applies to the lists for all areas across the country. However, if there is a specific requirement for Irish, it is possible to move down the list to someone who is available.

To go back to a point Deputies have made on recruitment, we said we would take Deputy Ó Cuív's points away with us. With regard to defining competitions, there are two separate streams. One is the dedicated Irish competitions about which I have spoken. The other is the non-bilingual competition, which is focused on English. Candidates for this panel are able to express a preference for an Irish role. Those are better definitions but that does not take away from us coming back to answer those questions at the next level.