asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the total number of Irish civil servants who will serve in the European Commission, the number to be allocated to each grade and the salary appertaining to each grade.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - European Commission.
9.
The number of Irish nationals including civil servants who will serve with the European Communities, and the grades to which they will be allocated, has not yet been decided.
Will the members of the Irish Civil Service who will be transferred to Brussels, so to speak, have the right, at their own discretion, to return to the Irish Civil Service and not suffer any loss of seniority?
That is one of the matters that have to be worked out. There are two distinctions here. There will be an Irish Civil Service establishment in Brussels to look after our interests and there will be posts in the Commission. They will be transferable posts for the applicants concerned to go to another jurisdiction, another administration, as it were.
Is that what the Minister meant when he said yesterday that jobs will be available?
It is a help, is it not?
The Minister has not answered the question I put to him. Will they have the right to return to the Irish Civil Service at their own discretion without loss of seniority?
I would not think so.
So they will be condemned to Brussels for all time whether they like it or not.
There is nothing compulsory about this. It is a matter of voluntary applications.
I know, but if they change their minds and decide that they do not like Brussels or the Brussels way of life, can they come back home?
They have the same rights back here.
Could they return to the Service here? Those permanently in Brussels and not attached as Irish civil servants—these are the people who may change their minds after a year. Will they have the right to return to the Civil Service here?
That has to be worked out.
Can the Minister say if there have been any ministerial meetings concerned with the numbers, grades and departments within the Commission in which Irish people will be employed?
No. We are very much in the early stages of all this. From now until the end of the year, all this will be processed and worked out.
Would the Minister not agree that it is important that Irish civil servants be employed as far as possible in departments within the Commission of importance to Ireland and will he take steps to ensure that this is so?
The Deputy can be assured that we are very much concerned about that.
Could the Minister say whether the various quotas of Irish personnel allocated to the various directorates in the Commission are going to be exclusively confined to public servants?
Not necessarily.
May we assume that when the Commission is making these appointments it will have before it a wide range of Irish people who may be interested in applying and that no impediment whatever Government-wise will be placed in the way of such persons being accepted into the service?
I agree fully with the Deputy here, and as far as the Government are concerned and as far as the Commission is concerned, the field is wide open in respect of recruitment.
Will there be a public competition?
Open, yes.
With Irish.
Sin ceist eile.