Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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64. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress in relation to the recruitment of clerical officers as part of the 2014 recruitment campaign into the Civil Service; the number of positions filled to date; the number of applicants on the list; the number of vacancies remaining to be filled from the list of applicants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39644/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Public Appointments Service (PAS) is an independent, statutory body which provides professional recruitment and selection services to the civil and public service. The PAS advertised a recruitment competition for Clerical Positions in June 2014 which attracted over 28,000 applications. This competition is being held in order to create panels of qualified individuals from which sanctioned vacancies can be filled.

The first stage of the selection process comprised tests and assessments which candidates were invited to complete online. Those who reached the qualifying standard (11,500) were ranked for each of their selected regions.

To date candidates who had chosen regions for which vacancies have been notified to PAS and who were placed highest at stage 1, have been invited to stage 2 supervised tests (almost 6,000 individuals). Based on the results of these tests, candidates who reach the qualifying standard and who are placed highest may be invited to stage 3 which comprises an interview and, if their place is reached, they are considered for a vacancy. To date over 2,200 have been invited to interview and 1,350 candidates have been assigned from this competition.

Vacancies are being notified to PAS on a continual basis. Currently there are approximately 170 civil service vacancy requests being processed to fill positions in various locations throughout the country.