Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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326. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will consider putting in place a system whereby applicants for positions advertised under the publicjobs.ie could be given a more substantive response to their application and the reasons for non-progression to the next stage; if he will consider a ranking system for unsuccessful applicants in order that they could receive feedback on their application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8158/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Recruitment to the civil service and a range of other public bodies is handled under the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004 which established a central recruitment agency, the Public Appointments Service (PAS),for this purpose. The PAS operates under licence from the Commission for Public Service Appointments and is independent in its operations.

www.publicjobs.ie is the primary web portal for advertisement of public service positions and is operated by the PAS. While the PAS uses the site to publicise its own campaigns, many of the positions advertised there (80% in 2013) are placed on behalf of other public service bodies. In such cases, the body concerned handles the processing of its own campaign and is responsible for communications with candidates.

In the case of its own campaigns, the PAS follows best practice in its procedures and automatically issues an indication of success/failure to all participating candidates. Depending on the nature of the assessment being employed the notice may routinely include details about a candidate s scores and/or placing in an order of merit. However, even if not included, results along with explanatory feedback are available to candidates on request.