Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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264. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of vacancies there are currently at clerical officer and executive officer grade; and the number of appointments at each of these grades scheduled in 2023. [61882/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Delegated sanction is the policy in place across the majority of the public service for the management of public service staffing levels since 2015. It was introduced by the Government to provide Offices and Departments with flexibility to recruit staff at grades up to Principal Officer level in order to meet identified business needs subject to remaining within overall pay ceilings agreed as part of the budget process.

Under delegated sanction, Departments have the scope to manage their workforce, subject to compliance with legislation, circulars and other policies. As a consequence, information about the current number of Clerical Officers (COs) and Executive Officers (EOs) vacancies, or indeed internal competitions run at the CO and EO grades and subsequent internal assignments, is not available to my Department and would be a matter for individual Departments to reply on.

According to the most recent data available to my Department, based on the Civil Service HR database updated by Departments, there were:

- 11,765 individuals serving in the CO grade, with a further 998 individuals at CO equivalent grades, at the end of October 2022 in full-time equivalent (FTE) terms. A total of 12,763 individuals were at CO or equivalent grade at end-October in FTE terms.

- 8,749 individuals serving in the EO grade, with a further 1,014 individuals at EO equivalent grades, at the end of October 2022 in full-time equivalent (FTE) terms. A total of 9,763 individuals were at EO or equivalent grade at end-October in FTE terms.

The Public Appointments Service (PAS) have provided the following information in relation to the competitions run by them for the CO and EO grades:

- For the CO grade, there are currently just over 800 requests by Departments. Approximately 200 candidates are expected to be assigned in January. There are 260 interviews scheduled in December, 350 interviews in January and 350 interviews in February. In addition, 1,448 Temporary Clerical Officers (TCOs) were assigned during 2022 with 276 requests pending, the majority of which will be filled in January 2023.

- For the EO grade, there are 380 requests by the Departments. These requests are expected to be filled by early February. There are 90 interviews scheduled in December and 312 interviews scheduled in January and February combined.

There is ongoing engagement between officials from my own Department and PAS and I understand that PAS plan to launch new campaigns as needed in 2023.