Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 13: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of public servants that have been redeployed under the new redeployment scheme agreed in the Croke Park Agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33926/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Public Service Agreement 2010-14 (the "Croke Park" Agreement) provides for agreed redeployment arrangements to apply in the Civil Service and in the Health, Education, Non-Commercial State Sponsored Body (NCSSB), and Local Authority sectors. In the context of the current constraints on the public finances and the need to maximise the use of resources, the public service needs the flexibility to be able to match staffing resources to areas of greatest priority. In practical terms the arrangements represent a means to sustain the ongoing delivery of priority services while other schemes and programmes are being reduced or downsized. The redeployment arrangements also support the commitment in the Agreement to avoid enforced redundancy.

Redeployment of staff across the public service can provide Departments and agencies with an effective and efficient mechanism to reduce excess staff numbers and to acquire additional staff where appropriate, without the need to resort to outside recruitment. For example, the increased staffing needs of the Department of Social Protection caused by the rise in the Live Register have been met within the existing resources of the Civil Service by the redeployment of some 450 staff from other Government Departments to that Department mainly by means of a staffing levy. Similarly, in the recent past some staff from BIM were redeployed to meet priority needs in SEAI.

The Agreement makes provision for the redeployment of surplus staff with the initial focus on redeployment within sectors. As a result of the moratorium, natural turnover and additional turnover boosted by several factors such as the introduction of the Incentivised Scheme of Early Retirement (ISER) and the Special Incentive Career Break Scheme, public service numbers have already been reduced by 11,000 or 3.4% in the period since March 2009. Indeed, the sector for which I have direct responsibility, the civil service, has seen its numbers drop by 2,300 or 6% and is currently operating well below its end 2010 numbers ceiling. In light of these reductions in numbers, there has to date been little identified surplus to redeploy across the sectors. However, I envisage that the redeployment mechanisms outlined in the agreement will, going forward, contribute to a smooth transition to a public service operating with reduced numbers.

Redeployment within employments or bodies in the individual sectors is a matter for the managers and employers in those sectors in the first instance having regard to policy and operational priorities and the budgets available. Indeed this is acknowledged in the text of the Agreement. Such internal changes in the assignment of staff and responsibilities are taking place on an ongoing basis in response to service delivery needs and reducing numbers of staff, and my Department could not realistically monitor such changes individually.