Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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913. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the basis on which public sector recruitment may be restricted to existing staff, including the basis for the common recruitment competition pools operated by local authorities; and his plans to amend legislation to prevent the use of such pools. [30883/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Recruitment in the Local Government sector is undertaken through a mixture of internal competitions and open competitions. In open competitions, candidates may apply irrespective of their place of work and will be assessed against the published criteria.  A set proportion of posts are filled on an open competition basis. In addition, posts at some management levels are filled solely through open competition.

In internal competitions in the Local Government sector, only candidates from a range of public sector bodies, what is called the Common Recruitment Pool, may apply.

The common recruitment system for Clerical/Administrative grades has been in place for over thirty years. The system provides for the filling of certain posts (at Grade IV to VII level) by competition confined to employees of Local Authorities, the Health Service Executive, Education and Training Boards, Institutes of Technology and certain other health and local government agencies. Issues in relation to the common recruitment pool were addressed in the Social Partnership Agreement “Sustaining Progress” when the social partners agreed to conduct a cross-sectoral review of recruitment issues pertinent to the grades concerned including the issue of greater accessibility and the introduction of a graduate entry level.

The recommendations of the Review Group established to review the issues were reflected in the discussions and agreement reached on the successor social partnership agreement “Towards 2016” concluded by the social partners. The “Towards 2016” Agreement provided for the implementation of arrangements whereby 20% of the posts at Grades V to VII and 50% of posts at Grade IV would be filled by open competition.  Specialist posts would continue to be filled by open competition only. Posts above Grade VII are also filled by open competition. Under the “Towards 2016” Agreement the implementation of the provisions regarding the common recruitment pool (CRP) is a matter for each relevant sector where the pool operates.

Recently, the Health and Education members of the CRP withdrew their membership of the pool.  On foot of a request from my Department, the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) is currently reviewing the CRP with a view to engaging with Public Sector Unions on a revised arrangement. Following this process and once I have considered the outcome of the LGMA's engagement with the unions, I will be introducing, by Ministerial Order, new qualifications for administrative staff to enhance the recruitment process and its alignment with Government policy of broadening the pool of candidates for public sector jobs.