asked the Minister for the Public Service if he would favour the extension of the career break and job sharing schemes, which now apply to the Civil Service, to the public sector.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Career Breaks and Job Sharing.
7.
In view of the success of the schemes in the Civil Service, the Government are in favour of extending the career break and job-sharing schemes to the public sector. A commitment to this effect is given in the national plan Building on Reality. Consequently, I have asked my Cabinet colleagues to arrange for the introduction of both schemes in other areas of the public sector. Schemes of career breaks have already been introduced in the health and local authorities areas.
In welcoming the Minister's intention to do that, will he in general seek a major increase in this type of activity and will he encourage to a more urgent extent, greater mobility between the public and private sectors? Perhaps the Minister can also tell me how many extra people might be interested in this scheme. Is there any indication as to the amount of interest in the public sector as opposed to the Civil Service itself?
My Department are making every effort to encourage the concept of mobility between the public and private sectors and any help which Members of the House could give in identifying private sector firms who might be prepared to participate in an exchange of staff would be very welcome. It is not possible to gauge the level of interest in the public sector beyond representations which are made from individuals or through Members of the House to me. I suspect that interest in both of these schemes will be very high if one bases it on the interest shown in the Civil Service during the period of less than a year since it was first introduced there. I should like to think that it will be generally successful and that it will make an impact both on career development and employment opportunities for those who replace the persons who opted for a career break or for job sharing.
Will the Minister take steps to bring this scheme to the attention of the private sector area and point out to them how useful it could be? It is important that it should be pointed out to them that this scheme is Government encouraged and that it would be useful to the economy if they availed of it.
There may be slight confusion here. The Deputy seems to be referring more to the staff exchange scheme. The question relates to people taking a career break for whatever reason. Some have gone into private sector employment, pursued further education, travelled or assumed domestic responsibilities. Job sharing allows people to work within the Civil Service and, hopefully in the future in the public service, on a half time shared basis. There is also a separate exchange scheme which the Deputy may be interested in and which we are anxious to encourage.
I welcome the announcement made and the encouragement the Minister is prepared to give to this very laudable scheme. It does not appear to be implemented at Civil Service level. I know of a specific case which arose last week where a nurse in the Army Nursing Service sought a career break to enable her to nurse in North Africa for some years. She could not be given any guarantee that she could return to her post as soon as her stint of service abroad was over. Would the Minister be prepared to take up this matter and see to it that the feeling of the Cabinet percolates to the officials who deal with these cases?
I take it the person referred to is a member of the Defence Forces?
A member of the Army Nursing Service.
The scheme does not apply to the Defence Forces as such. If the person involved is a member of the Defence Forces that may have governed the case in question. There are other schemes which allow for leave on a special basis from time to time. There is provision within all these schemes whereby if someone is in a key post and their services are considered essential, local management have discretion to say that they cannot accept the request at that time. If the Deputy gives me the details of the case in question I will take it up for him.
8.
asked the Minister for the Public Service the number of staff recruited by the Civil Service Commission on foot of participation by existing staff in career breaks and job sharing.
Figures relating to these schemes are compiled on a quarterly basis. The most recent figures available show that as at 31 October 1984, 414 staff had been granted career breaks and 86 staff, equating to 43 posts, had begun job-sharing. The 457 vacancies arising have been or are being filled through recruitment by the Civil Service Commission.
Is it normal practice to automatically replace all people on career breaks?
Yes.
Does that not mean that it will be difficult to reduce the size of the public sector?
The scheme provides that when a person opts for a career break their post is filled. The introduction of the scheme is two fold: to allow people mobility to test out some other aspect of life outside the Civil Service and also to provide employment opportunities. The overall size of the Civil Service remains unchanged because in the vast majority of cases those who opt for a career break or job sharing would not have done so if they could not if they so desired come back into the Civil Service at some future time. When they indicate their intention to return, if there is a vacancy they will be taken in at the grade at which they left; but otherwise they will be taken in at the next lowest grade. They would then wait to fill a post which falls vacant at the appropriate level. The overall size of the Civil Service will not be increased.
The purpose of the scheme, which I welcome, is not so much to tackle the size of the public service as to enable existing members gain outside experience. It has nothing to do with curtailing the size of the public service.
No.
I welcome the scheme. If a person wishes to have an interdepartmental transfer can he or she be accommodated more easily as a result of a colleague taking a career break?
That is a statistical question.
No, it is not. It is about interdepartmental transfers.
The question on the Order Paper is a statistical one. We are going off at tangents and the Minister might not be armed to deal with them.
No fear.
We cannot discuss the whole scheme.
The more people in rural offices who opt for career breaks the more mobility there will be for people in central offices to transfer to rural locations.
If a person in a rural office opts for a career break and a person in a corresponding grade in a central office wishes to have a direct transfer to fill the vacancy can that be arranged?
It can, but the Deputy is talking about a hypothetical case because there are very many applications for every potential vacancy in any rural office.