Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the Minister to the House. As he said, the legislation presented is required. It is common sense legislation that removes the barriers to redeployment and mobility within the public service and addresses issues that arise in terms of changing staff and the changed environment in which staff are employed. The Act amends the 2004 legislation and takes into account the circumstances and current policies of the Government.

It is a fact that 37,500 public servants have either retired or have terminated their retirement in one way or another through early retirement or other means. The public sector is under great stress with that number of people being removed. However, the public sector in this country is derided in some quarters. It is an excellent body of people. Those who are employed within the public sector are dedicated people and work extremely hard on a daily basis. They are cognisant of the situation the country is in and have sacrificed a lot in recent years in order to turn things around. That has been successful.

It is also worth noting that more than 10,000 staff have already been redeployed across various Departments and sectors within local authorities. It should be recognised that one cannot take staff from one section of the Civil Service or public sector and put them into another sector without proper training facilities being put in place. Funding has been set aside by the Minister for that purpose.

The Civil Service and the public sector are completely different to how they were 25 years ago. When I started my working life I was a public sector worker. The agreement in place at that time was that for every person who got promoted another person had to be taken from the seniority panel to complement the promotion. That was the environment in place at the time but it has completely changed now. The opening up of positions, in particular for the recruitment of senior staff, to external applicants has completely changed the focus of the public sector in this country. That is to be welcomed. If people are in a job for too long they lose their flair and energy. There is no point in saying otherwise. It is always good to have new people coming into a job, be it in the public sector or private sector. The legislation will help to re-energise the public sector by allowing senior staff to redeploy to other Departments or between local authorities. The Bill amends existing legislation. In spite of the indication by Senator Barrett that a number of areas are precluded from the remit of the Bill it is still a positive development. I would be interested to hear a response from the Minister on the sectors that are excluded.

Senator Byrne referred to staff and union agreements. The Minister indicated that the legislation is technical in nature. I assume agreements are in place to deal with the 2004 Act and that those arrangements will follow through on the enactment of the amending legislation. I would like the Minister to clarify the point.

It is very important as we move forward and, although this is separate from the Haddington Road proposals, it has ramifications for staff and it is important people would move into this in a willing way rather than there being an issue about it in future.

I welcome the legislation and hope it will be passed swiftly. I hope it will help the recovery of the country and ensure those staff who are under-employed because of changes in their areas can be redeployed to allow them to find fruitful employment in the future.