Written answers

Thursday, 13 February 2014

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Public Sector Staff Recruitment

Photo of Michael LowryMichael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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125. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his policy for the internal advertising of Civil Service jobs; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that jobs are being advertised internally for those on a temporary contract; his views on whether this is fair particularly to those who may have recently finished on their temporary contract and are therefore precluded from applying; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7237/14]

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Since 2004, recruitment to the Civil Service has taken place under the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004. This legislation established the Commission for Public Service Appointments (CPSA), the body which licences, regulates and audits recruitment processes. Recruitment processes are governed by the provisions of the Act as applied under Codes of Practice prescribed by the CPSA.  The bulk of appointments to the Civil Service are made under the general Code of Practice for Appointment to the Civil and Public Service which covers the majority of recruitment to the Civil Service. The CPSA has also published a Code of Practice for Atypical Appointments to the Civil Service and Certain Public Service Bodies. Under the Atypical Code, a confined process may be held where it is deemed appropriate that the selection process be confined to unestablished civil servants. Departments and Offices have the option of using such a confined process.

In respect of the competition referred by the Deputy, the Revenue Commissioners identified an urgent need to appoint a small number of Clerical Officers to mission critical posts in the Collector General's Office in Limerick. The appointments were deemed necessary to ensure the continued effective operation of the revenue collection system and will be deployed primarily for Local Property Tax (LPT) duties.  No suitable staff were available on the public service redeployment panel and sanction to recruit 21 Clerical Officers was granted by my Department in December 2013.  

 Arising from the urgency of the matter and the relatively small number of posts to be filled, in the interest of efficiency it was decided to run an atypical recruitment process under the CPSA Atypical Code. The process was confined to serving Temporary Clerical Officers in Revenue including a cohort of temporary clerical staff with the skills and experience required who were currently operating on critical LPT duties and who had been recruited through a Public Appointments Service process. The competition was also open to serving Service Officers, Service Attendants in Revenue who had become eligible to apply as result of the operation of the General Council Agreement on Cross-Stream Promotion in the Civil Service.

 I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the closing date for applications was 24 January 2014.  A total of 98 applications for the positions have been received. Interviews are due to commence on 17 February 2014 in Limerick.  Under the CPSA Atypical code only serving staff are eligible to compete.

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