asked the Minister for Finance if he will state whether the competitive examination that is to be held for permanent Clerical Officers in the Civil Service is to be in the nature of an examination as to their efficiency in the work connected with the separate Departments, or on purely educational lines?
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR CLERICAL WORKERS.
The examination will be of a kind intended to test the knowledge and ability of candidates for work generally assigned to persons of the Clerical Class in the Service as a whole and not in particular Departments, and in this and other respects will be on the same lines as the recent examination for the same class of appointment which was confined to candidates who had served in the National Forces.
Is it not a fact that these examinations are to be confined to temporary officers who already have been passed as educationally suitable?
No, sir.
Is not the examination to be confined to temporary clerks?
It is.
And have they not already been passed as educationally suitable?
No, sir. There was no competitive examination for those posts. The officers were appointed simply as men suited to undertake the duties assigned to them, but there was no actual test of educational ability amongst them. It is only possible to distinguish between them by the ordinary competitive examination which will be along educational lines.