Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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591. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when his Department plans to re-open recruitment and establish a new agricultural officer technical panel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9812/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to ensuring that a skilled and motivated workforce is in place to meet its priority business needs. To achieve this, workforce planning is utilised in identifying the needs across all our locations. Recruitment is currently underway in my Department to address these prioritised needs.

Technical posts continue to be filled through several mechanisms, including recruitment by Public Jobs and by my Department’s Human Resources Division. My Department continues to engage with our colleagues in Public Jobs to identify the requirement for an additional competition to locations where there may not be sufficient successful candidates to meet my Department's anticipated vacancies over the lifetime of the current panel. Any decision to undertake a technical competition will be informed by this engagement.

In line with my Department’s HR procedures, when a new Technical Competition is launched it will be advertised through Public Jobs and open to all interested candidates to apply.