asked the Minister for External Affairs the circumstances in which the Civil Service Commissioners have made an order declaring the position of assistant legal adviser in the Department of External Affairs an excluded position for the purposes of the Civil Service Commissioners Act, 1956; the salary and grade applicable to the position; and the person appointed to it.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Civil Service Post.
19.
A competition was held recently by the Civil Service Commissioners to fill two posts of assistant legal adviser in my Department. As the assistant legal advisers are urgently required the Civil Service Commissioners suggested that, as has been done in other cases, a limited period excluding order be made to enable the two persons provisionally selected for appointment on the results of this competition to be employed in a temporary capacity, if they wish to accept such appointment, pending the completion of the normal post-interview inquires. The Civil Service Commissioners have not yet completed these inquiries and in the circumstances it would not be proper to disclose the names of the candidates concerned.
Would the Minister indicate the salary and grade applicable to the position?
I have that information here but it is not clear enough.
The Minister's supplementary briefings today appear to be most inadequate, may I say with respect? He had not got a very simple answer to the last question.
I am giving the Deputy too much information.
The Minister is not getting enough information from his Department if it is not in his supplementary briefing.
I should like to start a class in Dáil Éireann for Deputies in the Opposition to teach them how to put down a Dáil question for the information they want.
The Minister is becoming rude and it is not like him. The Minister will see I asked for the salary and grade applicable to the position. Now if the Minister, with the class he proposes to set up, can improve on that— or has that to be expressed in a clearer way?—I shall be glad to hear from him. If the Minister was not distracted by other things he would have noticed the omission.
Now that the Deputy has persuaded me that I should be less than rude I would say that the scale and salary applicable to the position is the same as for a First Secretary or Assistant Principal Officer in other Departments. For a single man or woman, scale A, the salary is £1,910×£61—£2,415.
Disgraceful.
For a married man, scale B, it is £2,385×£71—£2,810. These scales attract the 12th round increase.
In case any misunderstanding arises out of what I said earlier, let me say I think the information was in the Minister's brief.
Would the Deputy take back the remark about my being rude?
I take back the implied criticism of the officials which arose out of the Minister's effort to conceal the information. The Minister is a naughty boy.
The Deputy should take back the comment about my being rude, because I gave him the information which he said I was rude not to give.
All right. He will not do it again.