Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of promotions made in her Department to principal officer higher scale, principal officer standard scale, assistant principal officer higher scale, assistant principal officer standard scale, higher executive officer scale, executive office scale and staff officer scale; the total for all of her Department; if she will provide a breakdown for for 2009, 2010, 2011 and to date in 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50981/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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As the Deputy will be aware since 2009 there is a moratorium on promotion within the Civil Service. However, given the increased demands on the services of my department, exceptional sanction was received from Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to fill critical vacancies in locations where posts could not be filled by the redeployment or transfer of staff.

In addition, under the Programme for Government, the Department has been tasked with the development of a new integrated income support and employment support service, which involved the integration of over 1,700 staff from the Community Welfare Service (CWS) of the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Employment/Community Services from FAS. The Department is now the largest civil service organisation with a total staff compliment of just over 7,100 employees and 6,700 posts.

The Department put a new regional and divisional management structure in place, to support the new service delivery model and the Department’s business support areas. In this regard, the Department sought and received sanction from Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for additional promotions as no senior management structure, (officials above AP level), transferred with the 1,000 staff from the HSE. Initially, eight higher duty allowances allowing staff to perform duties at Principal Officer level were awarded to manage the transfer of the CWS service and the ongoing operations and integration of this business area. These posts were subsequently assigned on a permanent basis, following a competitive process in early 2012.

The information requested by the Deputy in relation to each of the years 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 is detailed in the accompanying table:

Number of Assignments to Higher Scales and Promotions