asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will state the policy of his Department in regard to the filling of future vacancies as managers of employment exchanges in the country, whether it is proposed to appoint outside civil servants or promote existing officers of the staffs of the exchanges, and if he will make a statement generally on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Employment Exchange Managers.
It is assumed that the Deputy has in mind, not employment exchanges, the managers of which are permanent full-time officers of the Department, but branch employment offices, the managers of which are not established civil servants but act as agents of the Department. A branch manager is selected from the persons who apply for the post in response to public advertisements, due regard being had to his abilities and general qualification for the post, and the suitability of the office accommodation and staff which he proposes to provide.
In recent years, however, it has been the policy generally not to fill vacancies for branch managers pending examination of the position which will arise when the new social welfare insurance scheme comes into operation. In the meantime, when vacancies occur branch employment offices are being managed and staffed by full-time officers of the Department.
Am I to understand from the Tánaiste's reply that, in the event of the death, resignation or retirement of the manager of any of the employment exchanges throughout the country, an officer of his Department, a full-time, whole-time civil servant, will have full responsibility for the management of that office permanently? Is that the policy of the Tánaiste's Department?
I have said to the Deputy that the policy generally when a vacancy occurs in a branch employment office is to fill that vacancy by the assignment to it of a full-time established civil servant and the staffing of the office with personnel who are direct employees of the Department of Social Welfare. That is the policy I instituted early in 1948 and that is the general policy I intend to pursue, hoping ultimately to be able completely to eliminate the type of employment at present associated with branch employment offices.
Will the Tánaiste say why it was proposed to depart from the policy laid down in Baltinglass, where a vacancy there—it did not exist, I believe—was offered to Mr. Farrell?
I am thankful indeed to the Deputy for having raised that point, because it gives me the opportunity of dealing with a matter with which I had intended to deal. As far as Baltinglass is concerned, the moment the managership was declared vacant I assigned to it an established civil servant. No vacancy in the employment exchange at Baltinglass was offered to anybody either in Baltinglass or elsewhere. In accordance with the policy I have indicated here these exchanges have been staffed by the assignment to them of established civil servants and anybody who said that the appointment was offered to anybody is saying what he must know to be palpably untrue.
The Deputy then designates the statement at a public meeting by Mr. Carbury, a Kildare county councillor, as a palpable untruth?
The Deputy can put his own interpretation on it, but whoever said that the managership of Baltinglass exchange was offered to anybody is saying something which is not true.
It was said by Mr. Carbury.
I am saying that whoever said it was saying something which is not true. That may not convince the Deputy——
I will take the Tánaiste's word.
——but that is a fact and I will give you the office files.
For the information of the Tánaiste and Deputy Lemass a deputation from Baltinglass approached me with a view to having Miss Cooke appointed to the local exchange and I did not entertain it.