Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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3. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the number of persons holding Civil Service positions above clerical officer grade in his Department that entered the Civil Service via a route other than through an open competition run by the Public Appointments Service or its predecessors; the grades of each; and the basis for the non-standard recruitment. [11855/18]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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It is the policy of my Department that all new civil service staff are recruited through the Public Appointments Service and I can confirm this policy has been fully adhered in the period since my appointment as Minister.  

As provided for in relation to the employment of special advisers, both my special advisers were recruited directly rather than through the Public Appointments Service.

Without undertaking a physical examination of the personnel file of each of my Department's civil servants it is not possible for me to say if there are any historical instances of individuals recruited by a method other than through the normal processes of the Public Appointments Service or its predecessors.