Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason a person (details supplied) in County Westmeath has not been appointed to the post they applied for; the further reason the Public Appointments Service has not been requested by his Department to fill a vacancy in the area concerned; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that despite this person being first on the relevant panel, they will not obtain a position if his Department does not fill the vacancy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17504/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The person concerned, who is currently serving as a temporary clerical officer in the Department's Mullingar office, competed at a competition organised in 2002 by the Public Appointments Service, formerly Office of the Public and Civil Service Commission. This competition was for clerical positions and was confined to people who were employed in a temporary capacity. She was informed by the PAS that she was placed first on a panel for Mullingar.

The centrally agreed arrangements for the direct recruitment of clerical staff to some provincial locations provide that 50% of clerical vacancies in a number of named provincial locations are to be filled by direct recruitment while the other 50% are to be filled from the central transfer list for the particular location. For those provincial locations not included in the agreement, the previous arrangements remained in place whereby all vacancies are filled by the lateral transfer of a permanent clerical officer, in accordance with the central transfer list.

Mullingar is not one of the provincial locations for which direct recruitment was agreed and, accordingly, the Department does not have the discretion to recruit directly from the Public Appointments Service panel for vacancies in this office. In accordance with the agreed arrangements, all vacancies at clerical level must be filled by the lateral transfer of a permanent clerical officer from the central transfer list. The only circumstances in which direct recruitment could be considered would be in the event that the central transfer list for the location is exhausted. However, at present there are in the region of 160 names on the Department's transfer list for Mullingar.