Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 12 Dec 1991

Vol. 414 No. 6

Written Answers. - Public Service Statistics.

Dinny McGinley

Question:

86 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Finance the number of (a) civil servants and (b) public servants, exclusive of civil servants employed in each year from 1987 to date; the annual pay bill in respect of each group; and if he will outline Government policy on the control of numbers in the Civil Service and the wider public service.

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern)

The data on public service numbers and associated pay costs requested by the Deputy is detailed in the two tables which I am circulating with this reply.

In the Civil Service the very tight restrictions on recruitment in the 1987-89 period were followed by some limited recruitment and later by the greater flexibility to recruit within the limits of the new administrative budget arrangements. The former narrow focus on the direct control of Civil Service numbers as an instrument of public expenditure control has thus been subsumed within a more broadly based system for the control of Departmental administration costs generally.

Departments are now free to determine staffing complements up to and including HEO level and equivalents. Higher appointments still require Finance sanction. Thus a Department can now vary the numbers in most grades in the interests of greater efficiency and effectiveness, without specific Finance sanction, provided, of course, that they do not exceed the overall cash limits set out in the administrative budgets. In all cases, whether within the administrative budget delegated arrangements or dealt with by my Department, posts should be filled only where they are deemed essential having regard to the difficult overall budgetary situation.

As regards numbers policy in the wider public service, the 1991 Budget Speech emphasised the Government's ongoing determination that consolidation of the reduction in staff numbers achieved since 1987 (and detailed in Table 1) would go on. Consequently no general resumption in public service recruitment has been allowed, although limited recruitment has taken place in areas of particular need since 1989, such as the Garda and the health service.

TABLE 1

Public Service Employment

(as at 1 January) (a)

	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991
Civil Service (incl. Industrials)(b)	31,558	31,934	28,822	28,582	29,682
Garda Síochána	11,382	11,109	10,749	10,900	11,252
Defence Forces (incl. Civil.)	15,500	14,943	14,916	14,361	14,749
Education	54,500	54,403	51,992	51,006	51,654
Non-Commercial State Bodies	9,234	8,757	7,829	7,115	6,947
Health Services	61,564	56,955	55,312	57,406	58,737
Local Authorities	32,383	30,252	26,892	26,468	26,681
Total Public Service	216,121	208,353	196,512	195,838	199,702

(a) Figures for part-time employees have been converted to wholetime equivalents.

(b) The 1991 Civil Service figure relates to numbers at 1 October 1991.

TABLE 2

Associated Exchequer Pay Costs (1)

	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991
	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
Civil Service (incl. Industrials)(b)	446	435	443	487	519
Garda Síochána	206	203	209	228	240
Defence Forces(2)	173	180	186	224	233
Education	830	839	892	930	872
Non-Commercial State Bodies(3)	105	98	99	98	114
Health Services	797	780	824	936	980
Local Authorities(1)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Remuneration Vote(4)(to be allocated)					191
Total(5)	2,557	2,535	2,653	2,903	3,149
Other(6)	8	10	10	10	16

(1) The Exchequer pay costs detailed above cover the actual cost to the Exchequer of the pay of civil servants, the Permanent Defence Forces, Garda and teachers and varying amounts are included for pay in grants to health boards and other health agencies, non-commercial state-sponsored bodies and third-level colleges. It does not include the cost of pay in the local authority area which is not funded out of the Exchequer pay and pensions bill.

(2) Pay costs of civilians employed in the Defence Forces are included in the Civil Service pay costs detailed above.

(3) The pension costs of employees of non-commercial state-sponsored bodies is included in their pay costs for the years 1987-1989, inclusive.

(4) The allocation to the various sectors from the Vote for Increases in Remuneration and Pensions for 1991 has yet to be finalised.

(5) The above data on Exchequer Pay does not include general early retirement and pension costs which are part of the overall Exchequer pay and pensions bill.

(6) Includes,inter alia, pay and pensions costs for members of the Houses of the Oireachtas and the pay costs of Central Statistics Office field staff.