Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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66. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason there is no facility for interviews and aptitude tests for clerical officer roles by the Public Appointments Service to be held in regional locations outside of Dublin; if an option for regional locations will be ensured to avoid undue costs to potential candidates attending same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37898/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Public Appointments Service (PAS) is the statutory independent recruiter for the civil service.

I am informed that PAS is currently piloting a system of remote proctoring (which allows for the protection of test content, ensure authenticity of the test taker etc) for the Irish Clerical Officer competition.  

 This will reduce the selection process down to a two stage process and will mean that candidates can complete all online testing from a location of their own choice. There will be no requirement for candidates to come to the PAS offices and complete any tests onsite. Once this campaign is completed the introduction of remote proctoring for other campaigns will be examined taking resourcing implications into account.

I also understand that a further new approach that PAS has been trialling is video interviewing. To date this method has been piloted with some of PAS’s smaller campaigns e.g. Assistant Principal Higher and Assistant Principal (Human Resources). Again PAS will examine how video interviewing can best be used for other campaigns in the future.