Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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16. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the criteria his Department utilises to anticipate and prepare for future human resource trends in the public service, including how the need to respond to imbalances in staffing resources per capita across different geographical regions is measured and how this data is incorporated into policy; what he considers to be, based on available data projections for demographical trends, the most pressing concerns to the ability of the public service, including in particular local government; if he will provide an effective and generally equal service to all citizens in the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26381/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The increasing complexity of the Public Service delivery means that new skills and ways of working are needed for the delivery of effective and efficient services to all citizens of the State. Workforce Planning plays a key role in identifying human resource trends and forecasting workforce gaps in the medium term across the Public Service. 

The specific tools used for Workforce Planning in the public service are intended to encompass the main criteria that are relevant to anticipating and forecasting human resource requirements and also, where relevant, supply factors.  Where service needs reflect demographic trends, these are integrated into workforce planning models.  The information developed  from the aggregation and analysis of data in the workforce plans contributes to the development of HR policies and strategies designed to address gaps that are identified.  

Within a civil service context, the area for which I am primarily responsible, Workforce Planning was introduced in 2011 as a tool to assist Departments and Offices to achieve optimal impact in the deployment of their staffing resources.  It is a continuous business planning process of identifying, shaping and structuring the workforce to maintain the workforce capability and capacity required by each Department and Office to effectively and efficiently deliver the organisation's objectives. Through the use of Workforce Planning, Departments seek to address imbalances and trends, including those arising on a geographic basis through the development of human resource policies in areas including recruitment and mobility. 

Departments and Offices are currently in the process of developing their Workforce Plan for the next three years and this process has informed current recruitment policy.  In Budget 2015 it was announced that there would be a targeted programme of recruitment into the Civil Service to address service needs and a shortfall in key skills and this commenced in late 2014 and continues during 2015. To this end recent competitions have been held for Executive Officer, Assistant Principal Officer, both open and inter-departmental and an open competition for Principal Officer. 

Redeployment has been and continues to be used to deal with geographic imbalances where surplus staff have been identified due to rationalisations, reorganisations, reconfiguration and restructuring of Civil and Public Service organisations.  Redeployment made a substantial contribution during the Moratorium to seeking to ensure that front line and essential services were maintained during a period of intense budgetary pressures. To the end of May 2015, a total of 960 staff have been redeployed across the Civil and Public Service.

A process of delegating sanction to Departments and Offices to make their own appointments, provided they remain under a designated pay ceiling, is currently underway. The multi-annual pay ceilings are binding and it will fall to the Departments to deliver services within these agreed allocations for the period 2015-17. This includes responding to emerging expenditure pressures over that period without recourse to additional Exchequer allocations. To do so will involve commitment to ongoing reform and efficiency measures and reprioritisation of expenditure as appropriate. 

With regard to the Local Government sector, sanction in relation to staffing matters in local authorities has been delegated to the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government within budgetary pay bill ceilings and the Department is supporting local authorities in completing their Workforce Plans.  I would therefore direct the Deputy to my colleague, the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government for further information on the workforce planning process within the Local Government sector.

As a fundamental element of public service reform, workforce planning across the public service will continue to be prioritised to ensure that public services are delivered effectively and efficiently and on a sustainable fiscal basis.  There will be a continued focus on the development of existing methodologies for workforce planning to ensure that key features of the process such as demographic developments and the balanced provision of public services on a geographic basis - consistent with appropriate standards of provision - remain central to the overall approach.