Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

187. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans for future recruitment of staff who are proficient in Irish; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31170/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, the Public Appointments Service (PAS) is an independent statutory recruitment body for the civil service. PAS carry out general service competitions for the Civil Service and in many cases establish Irish language streams in those competitions. Depending on the competition, those candidates who have indicated an interest in Irish will either be processed separately through all stages to form an Irish panel or when the final Order of Merit is established.

The PAS have informed me that there is current, limited availability on a number of panels, and that a bi-functional competition for Clerical Officers will be advertised in the next few weeks. PAS also intend to run a bi-functional competition at Executive Officer level later in 2018.

Requirements for further bi-functional competitions will be reviewed in Quarter 4 as part of the Workforce Planning Process for 2019.