Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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283. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will publish the short-listing procedure and scoring matrix used by the Public Appointments Service regarding the appointment of city and county chief executives, including the upcoming Dublin City Council chief executive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22515/23]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Public Appointments Service (PAS) that where the number of applications received for the position of Chief Executive of a city or county exceeds that required to fill the position, PAS may decide that it would not be practical to interview everyone and call a smaller number to the next stage of the competition.

The Public Appointments Service provide for the employment of a shortlisting process to select a group who, based on an examination of the application forms, appear to be the most suitable for the position. This is not to suggest that other candidates are necessarily unsuitable or incapable of undertaking the job, rather that there are some candidates, who based on their application, appear to be better qualified and/or have more relevant experience.

During shortlisting, an expert board examine the application forms against agreed shortlisting criteria which are based on the requirements of the position. The standard of content of each application submitted may also be assessed during this process. The shortlisting criteria may include both essential and desirable criteria specified for the position and, applicants are informed that it is in their own interest to provide a detailed and accurate account of their qualifications / experience in their application for this purpose.

Candidates are shortlisted using an established system of qualitative evaluation of application forms and there are no specific marks awarded to candidates at shortlisting. The Shortlisting Board employ their professional experience and judgement in determining which of the applicants are most likely to attain a competitive standard at interview.