Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 299: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the flexibility now available within the civil and public service and State agencies to facilitate staff transfers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27531/11]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Ensuring a more flexible and responsive public service is a key element of the Government's reform programme. Measures to increase staff mobility and to ensure that resources are allocated to priority areas in a timely and strategic manner will form part of the reform programme implementation plan, which is currently being developed in my Department. A significant instrument in that regard is the Public Service Agreement 2010-14 (Croke Park Agreement) which provides for agreed redeployment arrangements to apply in the Civil Service and in other parts of the public service.Redeployment allows staff to be moved from activities which are of lesser priority, or which have been rationalised, reconfigured, or restructured, to areas of greater need. In practical terms these arrangements represent a means of facilitating the targeted reduction in public service numbers in the period to 2014 while sustaining the ongoing delivery of services.

The Public Appointments Service (PAS) has put in place a system of Resource Panels of Civil Service and State Agency staff to support redeployment. Posts to be filled by redeployment are offered in the first instance the relevant panel or panels. My Department will prepare the legislation necessary to remove legal barriers to cross-sectoral redeployment and to address other issues that arise on changing employer.

Where staff are not available for redeployment in a particular location, the post, if approved for filling by my Department, may be offered to staff who had already indicated an interest in transferring there, whether directly to the Department concerned or through the Central Applications Facility (CAF). Since 2003, the CAF has also facilitated the wishes of substantial numbers of public servants to transfer to alternative locations under the Decentralisation Programme. However, the possibilities to facilitate requests for such transfers are now more limited due to ongoing reductions in public service numbers and the necessity for redeployment to take precedence.

The Senior Public Service (SPS) provides mobility opportunities for Assistant Secretaries to move to posts at equivalent level within the civil service. As the SPS is extended to the wider public service, mobility will be extended on an incremental basis.