Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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322. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which voluntary retirements, ordinary retirement or redundancies throughout the public sector has impacted, particularly on the ability of some Departments to deliver their services; the extent to which he expects to be in a position to address this issue in the course of the current year, and thereafter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18665/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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As the Deputy is aware, retirement is a normal feature of human resource management in all organisations, and so too on occasion is voluntary redundancy.  As part of the Government's response to the crisis in the public finances, both incentived retirement and voluntary redundancy featured among a range of measures which were introduced to address the unsustainability of the Exchequer pay bill.  

Incentivised retirement was introduced as an emergency measure twice: in 2009 for the Public Service as a whole; and in 2010 for the HSE only.  This reflected the urgency of the budgetary situation faced at the time.  

Voluntary redundancy has been used in a more targeted way, and on a number of occasions, to help accelerate much needed structural reform in various areas of the Public Service.  The Government first introduced voluntary redundancy in late 2012 to support its ambitious programme of Public Service Reform, which included proposals for shared services and increased use of online services.  It was recognised at the time that where change of this nature happened, sometimes fewer people would be required and often different skills sets would be needed, and therefore provision was made for redundancy to be offered to staff by management, on a strictly voluntary basis.  It has not been a huge feature of change in the Public Service.  Since 2013, the number of people who have left the Public Service under a voluntary redundancy scheme has been just under 1,000.

As the Deputy is aware, at Budget time last October I announced an end to the Moratorium on Recruitment and Promotion in the Public Service, to be replaced during 2015 with new arrangements of delegated sanction.  These new arrangements will give Public Service managers the means to better respond to service needs as they arise, including considerable flexibility to make staffing and service delivery decisions.