Results 1,841-1,860 of 2,156 for speaker:Tom Parlon

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: This section of the Bill deals with exclusion orders which can be made in certain circumstances to allow recruitment to certain unestablished posts to take place in an expeditious fashion. In any event, section 13 requires the commission to establish standards of probity, merit, equity and fairness and these standards will necessarily underpin all the activities and judgments of the...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: Yes, that is the case. The term of the special adviser will coincide with the term of the Minister involved. Immediately on that Minister departing office, the special adviser's contract will finish.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: Those criteria are laid down. Ministers have access to special advisers. Junior Ministers have access to personal assistants. A Government could change those criteria. Previous Governments had different criteria. Senator Mansergh referred to the Minister who had five special advisers. I am not too sure to which party or regime he belonged.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: Those criteria are laid down by the Minister for Finance and they apply until they are amended.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: We dealt with this issue previously. The charging of fees was provided for under the previous 1956 Act and the Department of Finance was anxious to maintain this flexibility. It was used for one year in the mid-1980s and it is not intended to use it in future. We have identified some areas, possibly the recruitment of technical experts, where the provision may be used because of the...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: Section 52 allows the commission to revoke a recruitment licence where the licence holder fails to comply with the terms and conditions of the licence. It states that the commission may revoke a licence where it forms the opinion that: (a) a licence holder has failed or is failing to meet the terms and conditions of the recruitment licence concerned granted by them, (b) since the grant of the...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: This section deals with interference with the recruitment process and outlines the duty of licence holders, persons who are entitled to apply for a licence and recruitment agencies, to inform the CPSA that interference may have occurred. Subsection (1) places on those involved in a recruitment process a duty to inform the CPSA and the relevant licence holder of any interference or attempted...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: I used the word "interference" without qualification. The Act includes legal obligations and section 54 sets out the obligations on candidates in recruitment and selection. It provides that in respect of any recruitment, selection or promotion competition in the public service persons shall not: (a) knowingly or recklessly make an application that is false or misleading in a material respect...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: The combined effect of sections 54 and 55 is to allow for a more comprehensive response to nefarious behaviour on the part of any actor during the recruitment process. The provisions of this Bill underline the seriousness of contravention of the rules of recruitment and selection competitions and provide more punitive penalties than were available under the terms of the 1956 legislation....

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: We have discussed what would constitute nefarious or dishonest behaviour and I do not think such a representation falls into that category. I am sure that the public appointments service, PAS, will have information as to what constitutes a proper inquiry. The current advice is that such inquiries are inappropriate and that is where the matter would generally end.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: It is not illegal but it would be a waste of time.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: In a scenario where only two people are contesting a vacancy, a person who wished to hinder the application of one party is prevented from making nefarious representations but could make positive representations on the other person's behalf. This could be deemed improper interference. The standards employed by the PAS dictate that an inquiry such as Senator McDowell has posited would be...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: Section 17 relates to the making of assessments by the commission to determine whether a public service body should be regulated by it. Paragraph (d) of section 5 to which this amendment refers lists appointments in the local authorities, health boards and vocational education committees, VECs. The reason for this requirement is that these sectors contain large and complex public service...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: We are dealing with large and complex public service bodies and such assessment is important in terms of rolling out regulation in a structured way. I am not sure what exactly such assessments would involve.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: It is a question of whether the criteria that currently pertain to recruitment in the public service sector are compatible with those that will apply under the new legislation.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: Section 17 relates to the making of assessments by the commission to determine whether a public service body should be regulated by it. These assessments are set out in a report to the Minister which will contain the commission's recommendations. The commission will assess recruitment practice and make recommendations in line with the standards of probity, merit, equity and fairness required...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: The Ethics in Public Office Act 1995 and the Standards in Public Office Act 2000 require office holders to furnish declarations of interest as a general safeguard of probity in public office. The purpose of the section is to require the members of the commission to inform the Minister of interests that would affect their membership of the commission. These may be matters that would not figure...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: The section provides that where disclosure is made by a commissioner of beneficial or financial interest or there is a question as to whether a proposed course of conduct would be in breach of his or her duty to reveal such interests, particulars of the matter and a determination by the CPSA as to the correct action to take shall be recorded in the minutes of the meeting concerned. The...

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: With regard to the jobs held by people before they become commissioners, there are strict criteria under which such declarations must be made and if it was found they had not made declarations, that would render their original ex officio positions invalid. As Senator Mansergh said, resignation would be one outcome.

Seanad: Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Jul 2004)

Tom Parlon: This would be a rare scenario. Failure to make a disclosure is not illegal under the legislation but it would be illegal under the criteria applied to ex officio members. They would breach their terms of contract. Clearly it would lead to an investigation into the appointment. While inferring immediately that the person appointed would not be entitled to his job would certainly lead to an...