Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 68: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide an estimate of the number of public servants who will retire by the end of February 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11173/12]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 71: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the approximate number of public servants who after making an initial declaration of interest or intent to retire by the end of February 2012 decided not to proceed with their retirement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11200/12]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 84: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he expects to reach the target of 9,000 retirements from the public service in 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11176/12]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 106: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will indicate the extent to which the numbers employed in the public sector have fluctuated in each of the past five years to date in 2012; the extent to which any further reductions are intended; the degree to which impact on the delivery of public services has been measured with particular reference to the need to maintain front line services while at the same time achieving the targets set out in discussions with the troika; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11169/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 68, 71, 84 and 106 together.

The latest information from across the public service indicates that over 7,000 people have applied to retire by the end of this month. A sectoral breakdown of applications to retire is set out below.

In November 2011, I announced that we expected the size of the public service to fall to about 300,000 by end 2011, and that we had set a target of 294,400 for end 2012. I am glad to report that the end 2011 outturn was actually about 297,000. This reduction, combined with notified retirements to end-February, as set out above, indicates that the expected 9,000 "grace period" retirement number will be exceeded.

Information on the number of public servants who, after making an initial declaration of interest or intent to retire by the end of February 2012, decided not to proceed with their retirement is not available centrally but we would expect it to be very small.

With regard to changes in public service numbers over the last five years, details are set out below:

As the Deputies are aware, the Government is committed to further reducing Public Service numbers to 282,500 by 2015. This is in line with the Programme for Government and will allow us to achieve the paybill reductions that are required in accordance with the agreement with our external funding partners.

The Government has ensured that attention is being given to safeguarding frontline services in so far as possible. The moratorium will continue with certain limited exceptions for example in relation to some frontline posts, or statutory positions, etc. where a sufficiently strong business case is made to my Department. In the Health and Education sectors in particular special arrangements are in place for exemptions to the moratorium on recruitment for specified grades or positions. Of course, responsibility for operational planning in the context of reducing resources rests in the first instance, with each Public Service body and its parent Department. The Public Service Reform Plan and the Croke Park Agreement provide a range of mechanisms for discharging work including work reorganisation, changes to rosters or working hours, new methods of service delivery and redeployment of staff. Each public service body has scope to fully utilise these mechanisms as appropriate.

Transition Teams have been put in place for each of the sectors to deal with the specific short-term challenges arising from the ending of the grace period and to manage the process in their respective sectors. These teams are drawn from the existing Strategic Workforce Planning Groups whose task it is to ensure that sectoral employers are developing plans to deal with the operational and strategic consequences arising from staffing reductions in the coming years.