Vol. 427 No. 3
61 Miss Harney asked the Minister for Finance the number of married women that have returned to employment positions in the Civil Service in the past five years; and his views on whether the grounds on which women can so return are very limited; and the action, if any, he proposes to take on this matter.
There are two ways in which a woman who has resigned from the Civil Service may return to the service. She may compete in the open competitions which are held by the Civil Service Commission at various levels from time to time. The raising of the upper age limits for these competitions in 1991 — the maximum age for most competitions is now 50 — has facilitated the return of married women to the Civil Service by this means.
The other means by which married women may return to the service is provided for in Section 11 of the Civil Service Regulation Act, 1956, as amended by the Civil Service (Employment of Married Women) Act, 1973. Under these provisions, a woman who resigned from the Civil Service for the purposes of, on or following marriage, may seek reinstatement to her former position if she is a widow, if she did not marry or if she can establish to the satisfaction of the Minister for Finance that she is not being supported by her husband. This is the only statutory authority for the reinstatement of women to their former positions and it was clearly intended as a limited exception to the general rule that entry to the service is by way of open competition only. The statute is quite specific regarding the criteria that have to be fulfilled in order to qualify for reinstatement — to that extent, the intention and the requirements of the statute limit the provision to specific categories of women. In the past five years over 120 married women qualified for reinstatement in the Civil Service under this section.
