Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 31: To ask the Minister for Defence the number of civil servants in his Department at assistant principal officer or higher grades who were appointed to those positions from private sector; and if he will make a statement on matter. [29937/10]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The number of whole-time equivalent staff in the Department in May 2010 at the grade of assistant principal officer or higher is 51.3. Two people at assistant principal level or equivalent were recruited from outside the Civil Service as provided for under the social partnership agreement, Towards 2016. As all subsequent staff resources have been sourced from the central applications facility in the context of the decentralisation programme for the Department, there has been no further external recruitment.

Staffing of the Department is in line with recent Government decisions on a reduction in payroll costs and the moratorium on recruitment and promotion.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Does the Minister have any plans to continue the practice of hiring staff from outside the Civil Service?

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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There are two categories for which that is practical, the first being the general recruitment category. The second is in those cases where, from time to time, specialists such as accountants, solicitors and so on may be required. It would be wise to have recourse to the private sector generally in recruiting those staff, and I have no objection in principle to external recruitment. The difficulty at the moment is that there is a recruitment moratorium, so this issue does not arise in any event.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Will the Minister indicate the number of civil servants currently in his Department?

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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There are approximately 350 staff; I will come back to the Deputy with the exact figure.