Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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296. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the current status of voluntary re-deployment as agreed in 2009 Croke Park 2; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25991/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Public Service Agreements (PSAs) covering the period 2010 -16 (the Croke Park and Haddington Road Agreements) provide for agreed redeployment arrangements to apply in the Civil Service and in other parts of the Public Service.  Under the PSAs, redeployment generally takes precedence over all other methods of filling a vacancy and supersedes any existing agreements on the deployment of staff. The Deputy should note that the redeployment arrangements are not voluntary per se but provide a mechanism to allow staff to be moved as result of rationalisation, reconfiguration or restructuring of public bodies.  Redeployment operates through a Resource Panel system, which is managed by the Public Appointments Service (PAS) for the Civil Service and Non-Commercial State Sponsored Bodies (NCSSBs) under their aegis. It also manages cross-sectoral assignments where necessary.

The Resource Panel contains details of the posts identified by organisations for redeployment in these sectors on the basis of changing business needs or ongoing management of the Employment Control Framework (ECF) ceilings by public service bodies. Where an organisation has business reasons to redeploy staff, and has identified the number of posts involved and the location of the surplus, it seeks volunteers for inclusion on the Resource Panel. If the number of volunteers falls short of the surplus, Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) is applied, as appropriate. Assignments from the Resource Panel are made on the basis of "best fit" for the vacancy in the location, on foot of a comparison by the PAS of the knowledge, skills, competencies and career experience of those on the Resource Panel with the requirements for the available post.  The assignment decision is progressed directly between the sending and receiving organisations involved. While the assignee may appeal the redeployment decision to an independent adjudicator, the assignee must take up the position offered in advance of the adjudication process.

In cases where none of the public service organisations in a geographical area have notified details of surplus staff at the grade or at equivalent grades to the PAS for inclusion on the Resource Panel, or where there are insufficient numbers on the Resource Panel in the relevant geographical area, the PAS may seek volunteers from among staff who are outside that area.

Some 12,388 staff are recorded as redeployed to end December 2013.  There were 67 surplus posts notified to the Redeployment Panels at end May 2014: for the Civil Service (35); for NCSSBs (32). A significant portion of requests to date to fill positions have been for staff with specific qualifications and/or experience not represented on the panels or readily available in Departments and bodies. Another significant proportion is for staff in geographic areas (particularly Dublin) where there are little or no personnel available for redeployment.