Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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91. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of priority and civilian posts within An Garda Síochána that are unfilled; the date each post was approved by the Policing Authority and Department of Public Expenditure and Reform; the date the posts were advertised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3832/18]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware in accordance with section 26(1)(b) of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 as amended, the Garda Commissioner has statutory responsibility for the recruitment of civilian staff and I, as Minister, have no role in the matter. Section 19 of the Act governs the sanctioning of additional civilian staff for An Garda Síochána and requires the approval of the Policing Authority subject to my consent and that of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

Currently 200 new civilian posts have been sanctioned to address critical skills and capacity gaps within An Garda Síochána and to backfill posts occupied by Gardaí identified for redeployment to policing duties.  A further 47 posts have been approved by the Authority and are currently being considered by my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I expect that some of these posts will be formally sanctioned in the near future. In addition, I understand that An Garda Síochána are engaging with the Authority in relation to the business case for a further 150 civilian posts to address skills and capacity issues across the organisation and to backfill Gardaí to be redeployed.

I am informed by the Commissioner that of the 200 sanctioned new civilian posts work is on-going on filling 65. Of these posts one is for a Chief Data Officer at Executive Director level with six at Principal Officer (PO) level. The competition for the Chief Data Officer post closed on 7 December last and three of the PO posts are being progressed with the Public Appointment Service (PAS). One PO post has been advertised internally and it is expected that an appointment will be made shortly.  The remaining two PO posts are the subject of on-going discussion between my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to terms and conditions but I expect that progress will be made in relation to these posts shortly.

The remaining posts range from Assistant Principal Officer to Clerical Officer (or equivalent) and are being progressed in accordance with the relevant sanction by way of utilisation of existing PAS panels (23 posts) and via open competitions (35 posts of which 32 are at Executive Officer level).  As the Deputy will be aware, the jobs market is competitive at the moment, and this can lead to some delays outside of the control of An Garda Síochána in appointing people to posts. This is due to the fact that some people may seek to avail of other opportunities as they arise. I am assured that An Garda Siochána is fully engaged with PAS to progress the filling of these posts as quickly as possible.

For the Deputy's information I have set out below in tabular form the details of the 65 posts remaining to be filled.