Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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440. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide details of recruitment under the aegis of his Department to the public sector since the partial lifting of the embargo on recruitment. [18253/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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My Department was granted delegated sanction in February 2015 to manage its staffing resources. Under this sanction, we are in the process of recruiting eight Development Specialists for the Irish Aid programme and fifteen Clerical Officers to fill critical vacancies throughout the Department. We are also taking on two Third Secretaries, the recruitment grade for the diplomatic service, under the delegated sanction arrangements. This is in addition to the recruitment of Third Secretaries which took place in 2014 and earlier this year with the specific approval of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Decisions on further recruitment, mainly to fill critical gaps, will be taken as part of the Department’s on-going workforce planning.