Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. As Minister with responsibility for the public service and public expenditure, I have overall responsibility for employment and human resource policy for the public service as a whole. The Deputy will appreciate that the specific decisions made by public bodies on the re-engagement of former public servants reflect the particular circumstances applying in each case and are, in the first instance, for the employing bodies within the general policy framework set out. The overall policy approach is that all appropriate alternatives should be fully examined prior to the engagement of any retired public servant. Any re-engagement should only take place, in so far as is possible, on a limited and restricted basis and be related to a particular set of circumstances such as, for example, where a particular skill or experience is required on a short-term basis. In practice, in the light of the nature, complexity and specialist knowledge required in some particular instances, situations can arise - they have arisen - where the most appropriate and cost-effective way of meeting a specific skills need, for example, in a project environment, would be to appoint a person who has previously worked in that area and has a detailed understanding of the requirements of the role and how they can be met successfully.

The issue raised in the Deputy's question is relevant, in particular, to public service personnel who have, since 2010, been able to avail of several incentivised retirement schemes. These include the Civil Service incentivised early retirement, ISER, scheme, the Health Service Executive targeted voluntary early retirement and voluntary redundancy schemes and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government voluntary redundancy scheme. In June 2012 a collective agreement was reached between the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the public services committee of ICTU on ex gratiaredundancy payments to public servants. Staff applying for any of these schemes face significant restrictions on taking up any such position. These restrictions effectively debar them from re-employment in the public service, other than in exceptional circumstances governed by the conditions of each scheme.

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