Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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59. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason short-term employment contracts based in her Department are being offered to persons who are engaged in short-term contracts in other Departments, and consequently cannot accept those positions even though they may only have two or three weeks left on their existing contract; the reason this is marked as a rejection of an offer against them; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2104/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Public Appointments Service (PAS) have responsibility for all temporary clerical officer recruitment for this Department. PAS maintain the panel of temporary clerical officers (TCOs) and assignments are then made as temporary vacancies arise.

Competitions for TCOs are conducted by PAS on an annual basis and when candidates come up for consideration they may be in employment as a TCO on foot of a previous year's competition. PAS assign successful candidates to Departments in strict order of merit.

When an assignment is made to the Department, the Department then makes an offer of appointment to the successful candidate. If a candidate is already employed from a previous competition, it is matter for him/her to decide either to accept the offer or to decline the offer and remain on their current contract. This is in accordance with the PAS process which the Department is obliged to comply with.