Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Question 260: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason, when considering temporary vacancies in a Department, redeployment from other Departments or agencies is considered before the transfer list of the same Department is used; if this means employees on temporary contracts have a greater chance of transfer than permanent employees in the Department in which there are vacancies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16062/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Public Service Agreement 2010-14 (Croke Park Agreement) provides for agreed redeployment arrangements to apply in the Civil Service and in other parts of the public service. Under the Agreement, redeployment generally takes precedence over all other methods of filling a vacancy and supersedes any existing agreements on the deployment of staff. It sets out the agreed redeployment arrangements within the Health, Education, and Local Authority sectors; and within and between Civil Service and Non-Commercial State Sponsored Bodies (NCSSB). It also provides that cross sectoral redeployments will follow the arrangements agreed for the NCSSBs.

The Public Appointments Service (PAS) has put in place a system of Resource Panels of Civil Service and State Agency staff to support the redeployment processes in those sectors agreed under the Croke Park Agreement. It is a matter for the employer to identify the number and grades of posts to be redeployed in the first instance and to upload the posts onto the PAS panels. Posts to be filled by redeployment are offered in the first instance to the relevant panel or panels.

In situations where an organisation has a need for staff on a temporary basis it is considered reasonable to seek to fill these in the first instance from the redeployment Resource Panels. Where it is agreed that posts should be filled on a temporary basis by redeployment, a loan arrangement would apply. Staff on such assignments would remain as employees of their current employer and be retained on the payroll of the sending organisation, with salary costs etc. being met on a recoupment basis.