Written answers
Wednesday, 27 April 2005
Department of Finance
Public Sector Employment
9:00 pm
Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 78: To ask the Minister for Finance his policy on public service employment. [13268/05]
Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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In December 2002, to control public service numbers, the Government decided to cap numbers at the existing authorised level and to reduce numbers by 5,000 across all sectors by the end of 2005. In July 2003, the Government decided on the timing and location of 4,300 of these posts. The position at end December 2004 is as shown in the table.
| Public Service | Corrected Baseline | Target end 2004 | Serving end December 2004 | Difference Serving / Target 2004 |
| Civil Service [Non Industrials] | 36,874 | 36,269 | 35,050 | -1,219 |
| Civil Service [Industrials] | 2,186 | 2,163 | 1,817 | -346 |
| Health Sector | 96,000 | 96,950 | 98,723 | 1,773 |
| Education Sector | 78,350 | 78,000 | 79,708 | 1,708 |
| Defence | 11,800 | 11,580 | 11,517 | -63 |
| Garda | 12,200 | 12,200 | 12,209 | 9 |
| Local Authorities | 34,300 | 33,633 | 33,469 | -164 |
| Non-Commercial Semi-States | 9,541 | 9,376 | 9,088 | -288 |
| Total | 281,251 | 280,171 | 281,581 | 1,410 |
All numbers refer to whole-time equivalents, WTEs.
I am satisfied that the Civil Service, defence, local authority and non-commercial semi-State sectors are adhering to the numbers reduction policy. Numbers have risen in both the education and health sectors, in part reflecting policy decisions. I am in consultations with the responsible Ministers regarding their proposals for addressing the issues involved with a view to controlling numbers in the sectors concerned in line with Government policy.
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