Ms Margaret McCabe:

I thank the chairperson and members of the joint committee for their invitation to today’s meeting. As requested by the committee, I am here to discuss the role of the Public Appointments Service, PAS, in TLAC’s functional model in respect of senior management jobs in the Civil Service and the requirement under the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021 for at least 20% of the public service to consist of functional bilingual officers by 2030 and the measures taken by PAS in this regard. My colleague, Amy Mitchell, who is the senior manager with responsibility for the Irish language unit in PAS, is with me today.

PAS is the recruitment and resourcing service provider for client organisations in the civil and public service. We are responsible for the sourcing, assessment and delivery of quality candidates to those clients, which include the Civil Service, local authorities, An Garda Síochána, the HSE and other public bodies. With regard to TLAC appointments, we run the initial stages of the recruitment process on behalf of TLAC, from advertising up to preliminary interviews, and also run the final stages of the recruitment process for specialist TLAC level roles, as agreed by TLAC. We operate under the Commission for Public Service Appointments code of practice in this regard.

We are aware of the Official Languages Act requirement for at least 20% of staff recruited to the public service to consist of staff who are competent in the Irish language by 2030 and this is a key element of our current strategy and our submissions to the Department as to the investment needed to deliver on this legislative requirement. We nominated a member of the PAS board of management to the language services advisory committee and are fully committed to implementing any recommendations on recruitment included in national plan for Irish-language services, which I understand is currently in development by this committee.

We are also at the initial stages of a brand strategy implementation project that will allow us to better drive recruitment solutions in a difficult recruitment market. A key element of our approach includes the requirement to attract candidates with Irish-language proficiency to public service roles at all levels. This will also inform a tailored attraction strategy for the most senior level of posts with a particular emphasis on the Irish language to be achieved through a significant broadening and strengthening of our advertising base and reach and the development of more comprehensive and targeted recruitment marketing campaigns across a range of media platforms and formats. We have been examining how we can build on the strength of Publicjobs.ie as the acknowledged key central gateway to careers in the public service alongside its established dual-language offering. In 2022, we launched a public service recruiters network in collaboration with the CPSA. In June 2023, we hosted a session with the theme of the Official Languages (Amendment Act) 2021 and key provisions relating to recruitment. The session was very timely to raise awareness on how to increase the number of Irish speakers in the public sector by 2030. We are committed to achieving progress in this area and have planned another such network event for the fourth quarter of 2024 in order to consider developments in this area across the public service. We work closely with our clients recruiting through the medium of Irish to design the process to achieve the best outcome. I look forward to engaging with the action plan of the Irish-language advisory committee to see how best PAS can contribute. I am happy to answer any questions this committee may have.