asked the Taoiseach if, in view of the large number of candidates who repeatedly apply unsuccessfully for vacancies advertised by the Local Appointments Commission, he will recommend to the commissioners that they indicate to each unsuccessful candidate after the post for which he applied has been filled, the position he attained in his order of merit.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Local Appointments—Unsuccessful Candidates.
At my request, the Local Appointments Commissioners are examining carefully the suggestion contained in the Deputy's question.
The competitions in respect of which this matter arises are, mainly, competitions for appointment to professional posts. In the case of the professions that are principally concerned, I hope that the bodies that are competent to represent the views of both the candidates and the professional members of interview boards will be consulted and their views ascertained.
Would the Taoiseach ask the commissioners to bear in mind the fact, particularly in the case of appointments for dispensary doctors, that several applicants come from England and come repeatedly, thereby incurring expense far in excess of their means, and to have special regard to that aspect of the matter; and, further, that if they do not consider it feasible to notify each applicant of his place on the list of applicants, to consider publishing a short list of candidates from one examination to another?
I can assure the Deputy that I will have his supplementary suggestion examined also. I can tell him that, even before he put down this question, I had been going into the entire matter myself. There has been considerable dissatisfaction amongst professional people in reference to the results of these examinations, and I feel myself that the more publicity there is the better: that it will dissipate any suspicion in regard to the activities of the Local Appointment Commissioners. There are, however, very considerable difficulties. There is the question whether particular applicants themselves might like publicity, the question whether those people who give their services free on interview boards would be prepared to continue and a number of matters of that kind, all of which I am having examined in the hope that there will be some proper policy that will be satisfactory to all parties. I hope to have the various views ascertained.