Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The remit of the Public Appointments Service, PAS, includes conducting a wide range of campaigns for key roles across the Civil Service and broader public service. Its recruitment mandate encompasses a large volume of entry level competitions, including clerical officer and Garda Síochána trainee recruitment as well as administrative, professional and specialist posts at all levels, including hospital consultant and senior management positions across the Civil Service, public service, regulatory bodies and some State agencies. PAS, therefore, plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the human resource and workforce needs of the public service are met by qualified, high calibre and committed candidates. PAS operates within a strict legal and regulatory framework to safeguard the core principles of Civil Service employment which have played such an important role since the foundation of the State.

The easing of the moratorium on recruitment to the public service in late 2014 has resulted in a significant increase in activity for PAS, particularly in the large volume competitions. To the end of August this year, PAS has completed 313 recruitment campaigns, handled over 45,000 applications and assigned over 3,640 people to positions in the public service. In terms of the scale of individual competitions that PAS have successfully run, it is worth acknowledging that the Garda Síochána campaign in December 2013 attracted nearly 25,000 applications while 28,000 people applied to the clerical officer competition in 2014. In order to effectively manage the significantly increased workload of recent years, PAS has implemented significant changes and process improvements in its methods of operation while continuing to adhere to its strong values of independence, fairness, transparency and the making of appointments on merit. In operational terms, all applications for positions in the public service are handled online via the bespoke website . The initial testing stages of recruitment processes are also completed online allowing candidates the benefit of competing for positions from wherever they are in the world. Many interview processes are now conducted in a paperless fashion.

Finally, I ask the Deputy to note that PAS also took on responsibility for the new State boards assessment process following the reforms introduced by Government in 2014.

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