Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 504: To ask the Minister for Finance the criteria applied by his Department in considering the grant or refusal of an exemption by a Department or State Agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33517/10]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 506: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a breakdown of the exemptions sought by each Department, including job and grade, to the recruitment embargo outlining which exemptions were granted and which exemptions were refused in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33519/10]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 507: To ask the Minister for Finance if will provide a breakdown of the exemptions sought by each State Agency, including job and grade, to the recruitment embargo outlining which exemptions were granted and which exemptions were refused in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33518/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 504, 506 and 507 together.

The moratorium on recruitment and promotion was introduced by the Government at the end of March 2009. The moratorium allows for certain general exemptions in the Education and Health Sectors for the filling of certain key posts as well as for the Local Authorities in relation to certain key posts. Information in relation to the posts covered by these general exemptions may be sought from the relevant Ministers.

Departments have been implementing the moratorium in respect of themselves and the bodies under their aegis. However, where a Department feels that a post should be filled, in either the case of a civil service post or in relation to a public service post in a body under the aegis of the Department, it requires the sanction of the Minister for Finance for an exception to the moratorium. Requests for exceptions are not made in respect of every vacancy.

Each request for an exception is assessed on a case by case basis. Approval to fill posts is based on the business case made including consideration of, for example:

a. statutory posts which have to be filled for legal reasons;

b. in a number of instances failure to fill posts could result in a breach of EU/international regulations etc.

c. safety related posts where a failure to fill them could leave the state open to potential legal liabilities or for security reasons;

d. some specialist/technical posts which are required to ensure continuity of operations e.g. legal officers, laboratory staff, maritime safety, etc.;

e. to ensure continuity of essential services.

It should be noted that in accordance with the terms of the moratorium, exceptions can only be sought by Government Departments and Offices after all internal possibilities of reassigning staff, reorganising work, etc. have been exhausted. In addition, as part of the Employment Control Framework 2010-2012 for the Health Sector, the HSE has discretion to fill a limited number of posts on exceptional grounds to support the development of integrated health care and its transformation programme. There must be suppression of posts of equivalent value in non-frontline areas for each new exempted posts or each exception made.

Information on the individual exceptions sought by each Department in respect of Civil Service and Public Service posts is outlined in table 2 and table 3, respectively. Unless otherwise stated in the tables the information covers the period up to the 1st of September 2010.

Civil Service

Table 2 sets out the breakdown of exceptions to the moratorium which have been sought in respect of the Civil Service. Approximately 2,800 staff have left the Civil Service since the introduction of the moratorium in March 2009. To date, exceptions have been sought to fill 1,966 posts and of these 1,244 have been approved either in full or in part. However, only some 520 of these posts will in time involve recruitment of new staff. During this period the net reduction in civil service numbers has been 2,300, representing a decrease of some 6% on numbers serving numbers in the civil service. In addition sanction has also been given for some 276 temporary posts for Census 2011 and for various temporary †̃summer reliefâ€TM type posts.

Public Service

Table 3 sets out the breakdown of exceptions to the moratorium which have been sought in respect of the wider Public Service. My Department has received 255 requests involving 1,919 posts. 182 requests have been sanctioned in full or in part in respect of 1,014 posts. 27 requests have been refused and a decision is pending in relation to 46 requests. Summary information by Department is set out in table 1.