asked the Minister for the Public Service if he will clarify his statement made in reply to Parliamentary Question No. 26 of 13 February last, to the effect that civil servants up to and including clerical officer level are free to engage in politics; if civil servants in this category are free to join political parties and to stand for political office; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Civil Servants' Political Activity.
21.
The position regarding the civil servants concerned is that those employed in the industrial categories and in manipulative, sub-clerical and manual grades are free to engage in political activity, subject to the general restriction that they are not permitted to stand for election to either House of the Oireachtas or to the European Assembly. Members of the clerical classes in the Civil Service, and civil servants in non-manipulative grades with salary maxima equal to or below the clerical officer maximum, may apply for permission to engage in politics on the same basis, but officers employed on particular types of work may have their applications refused.
These arrangements — which were introduced in 1974 and which represent a relaxation of those previously in force — are kept under review by the Government who are conscious of the need to have as many citizens as possible play an active part in the affairs of the State, while at the same time ensuring public confidence in the political impartiality of civil servants. In particular, the Government consider that civil servants concerned with the framing of policy should serve, and be seen to serve, all Governments objectively and impartially; and that civil servants whose work concerns the execution of policy and entails, for instance, a direct service to the public or access to confidential information, should not be known adherents of a political party.