Mr. David Moloney:

The Civil Service has been successful in attracting high-quality people over the years, but there is always more to be done and there are always ways of looking around and seeing what can be improved. The independent review panel will do that for senior public service posts and to be fair to the Public Appointments Service, it is constantly looking at new ways of recruiting people, and is aware, particularly in the current labour market, of the need to get people in. Many of our processes are driven by the need to be meticulously fair, to follow the Commission for Public Service Appointments guidelines. Sometimes they can be perceived to be slow and people might go off and get other jobs, which is a particular challenge in the current environment where people have such choice.