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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Dec 1984

Vol. 354 No. 7

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Civil Service Career Schemes.

3.

asked the Minister for the Public Service the number of employees who have taken leave under the temporary release scheme from the Civil Service; the duration of such leave of absences; and if he will give a report on the success or otherwise of the scheme.

4.

asked the Minister for the Public Service the number of civil servants who have taken advantage of the career break and job-sharing schemes since their introduction; and the progress which has been made in expanding the schemes throughout the public service.

I propose to reply to Questions Nos. 3 and 4 together.

The number of civil servants granted leave under the career break scheme for the period to 31 October, 1984 is 414. Of these 274 are for one year, 52 for two years and 88 for three years.

The number of civil servants who have commenced job-sharing in the same period is 86.

The purpose of both schemes, which were introduced by me earlier this year, is to create additional job opportunities for young people in the Civil Service and to facilitate those with special domestic responsibilities or wishing to pursue particular interests. I am very encouraged by the number of staff who have availed of both schemes in the short period since their introduction. I am confident that the high level of interest in the schemes will be maintained.

The success of the schemes in the Civil Service has prompted the Government to have them extended to other areas in the public sector, and a commitment to this effect is given in the national plan. I have recently written to my colleagues in this regard and I expect that the schemes will attract as much interest, and enjoy the same level of success, in the rest of the public sector as in the Civil Service.

The Department of Health have already introduced a scheme of career breaks in the health sector.

I should like to take this opportunity to put on record my appreciation of the co-operation received from Departments in the promotion and implementation of the schemes in the Civil Service and in the plans to have them extended to the public sector. As is so often the case, the success of schemes devised centrally is dependent largely on the goodwill and commitment of those whose responsibility it is to have them implemented. I am particularly grateful to the staff involved.

We all agree that the schemes give incentives to some officials. Will the Minister give a broad outline to the House of how the job-sharing scheme works? Will the Minister tell the House if the 86 people mentioned are employed on a half-week basis or do they work a specific number of hours each day? Will the Minister tell the House how the benefits, entitlements to pensions and other matters operate for such people?

The job-sharing scheme operates on the principle that a person may opt to be employed on a half-time basis and provided there is somebody of the same grade in the same office who is prepared to work on a half-time basis those two people constitute a full-time job. For each two people who opt for half-time working one full-time job is released to be filled by new entrants to the Civil Service. In addition a small number of jobs were advertised recently by the Civil Service Commission on a job-sharing basis. It is hoped that a number of those will be filled in the new year.

Have the people who have taken advantage of these schemes to go abroad been given a commitment that on return they will be appointed to the same grade in their Department? What commitments were they given?

People who opt for a career break are entitled to return to the office in which they had previously been employed having given a reasonable length of notice. If it happens that there is not a vacancy in the grade in which they had previously been employed at the time when they want to return they can take one or other of two options. They can wait until a vacancy occurs in that grade or they can take a vacancy in a lower grade and occupy it until such time as a vacancy occurs within their own grade. Those who have opted for a career break have done so for a variety of reasons and travel abroad is the largest category by far, representing more than a quarter of the total number.

When these people return to their posts following their career breaks, will their replacements be given the first vacancies which occur in the Civil Service or will the view be taken that they were never in the Civil Service?

As I said, 414 people have availed of the career breaks scheme to date. When they return to the service their replacements will be retained in the service. The replacements are recruited if they are in a promotion post by somebody being promoted into the vacancy and a new person is recruited to the recruitment grade. The person recruited is already in permanent employment and will be retained within the service.

Is that in line with the embargo? Are they recruited under the one-in-three scheme?

Already 414 people have taken career breaks and they have been replaced by 414 people. In other words, the effect of the two schemes since they were introduced at the beginning of April last has been to bring about the employment of 414 people through the career-breaks scheme and 43 people through the job sharing scheme.

Does the Minister wish to give a date when this scheme will be extended to the other sectors of the public service?

The Department of Health have introduced a scheme which started about the same time as the Civil Service scheme. Recently we made a conscious decision that it should be extended to the wider parts of the public sector. I understand that the Department of the Environment in relation to the local authorities and the Department of Education in relation to educational interests are pursuing the possible implementation of the scheme at the moment. Other Departments have discussed this matter with the State agencies and bodies which come under their aegis and I hope there will be an early introduction of a scheme, particularly in the educational and local authority areas.

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