Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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285. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs 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. [18264/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Recruitment to my Department and agencies under its aegis has been ongoing as needs arise, and subject to the existing Moratorium.

The Moratorium on recruitment to the Public Service was introduced in 2009. While the Moratorium was not a blanket ban on recruitment, an Employment Control Framework was put in place which included a ceiling on the numbers of employees in each Department and their agencies. My Department has been implementing the moratorium in respect of itself since the Department's establishment in June 2011 to date, and likewise in respect of the bodies under its aegis.

Under the terms of the Moratorium, where a Department believes that a post should be filled, in either the case of a civil service post or in relation to a public service post in a body under the aegis of the Department, it requires the sanction of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform for an exception to the moratorium. Requests for exceptions are not made in respect of every vacancy.

In Budget 2015, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr Brendan Howlin, T.D., announced that arrangements would be put in place to replace the Moratorium with a framework whereby management of public service staffing will be delegated to Departments. The Minister has stated that the new framework will be subject to binding overall pay ceilings and commitment to ongoing reform and efficiency objectives.

Officials in my Department are currently finalising the details of the new framework with officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. No recruitment has therefore taken place yet under revised arrangements.