Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 19 November 2015
Public Accounts Committee
2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 18 - Shared Services
Vote 41 - Office of Government Procurement
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 5 - Management of Government Grants
Chapter 6 - Payroll Accrual for National Accounts
Chapter 7 - National Lottery Fund
10:00 am
Mr. Robert Watt:
There may be an issue within the legal area. I do not know whether it is acute but there may be an issue with our ability to attract legal people and retain them. I am not absolutely convinced yet but we shall see, depending on how the labour market recovers. At the moment, there is certainly without doubt a major problem with ICT. The most acute problem we face relates to technologists. There is no doubt that if I was asked for one area within the Civil Service, I would advert to technology. The rates of pay the private sector offers are multiples. We have seen it ourselves with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. We have been trying to recruit. We brought someone in and then the person left. We have tried to recruit other people but we are simply not competitive. The pay is not competitive.