Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy will be aware that the Top Level Appointments Committee, TLAC, recommends candidates to Government for the most senior appointments in the Civil Service. Subject to certain exceptions, TLAC deals with all posts at or above assistant secretary level or equivalent across the Civil Service. The Government is the appointing authority for posts at secretary general level and the TLAC recommends up to three candidates, if found suitable, for posts at this level. The Government appoints the secretary general from among the recommended candidates. In the case of posts below secretary general level, for example, assistant secretary posts, the appropriate Minister is the appointing authority and one candidate is recommended by TLAC to the Minister for appointment.

Some 70 TLAC competitions were run over the past five years, 14 of which were at secretary general level and 56 were at assistant secretary level and equivalent. No post was filled by a person from outside the Civil Service in the past five years, even though two posts were filled by open competition rather than by competition among eligible officers across the Civil Service. Some 13 posts, including four at secretary general level, were filled by people from outside the Department where the vacancy occurred.

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