Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 8 Jul 1993

Vol. 433 No. 7

Written Answers. - Public Service Staff Embargo.

Noel Ahern

Question:

73 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Finance if he will give details of the Government's current embargo on recruitment in the Civil Service, State agencies and semi-State bodies; if it is necessary for various organisations to receive approval when filling vacancies on a temporary basis or under a fixed term contract; if so, if he will give details of the number of jobs so approved and the bodies involved; and his views on whether it is time to end the embargo in view of the fact that some organisations have 30 per cent of their staff on contract because of it.

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern)

There is no current embargo on recruitment to the public service although a ceiling on overall numbers employed is in operation. The Government's position on public service numbers for 1993 is that the numbers serving in the Civil Service and in the non-commercial State-sponsored bodies (NCSSBs) should not exceed the numbers serving on 1 January 1993. Given that there is inevitably some natural wastage in these areas, recruitment can and will continue — provided that any such appointments will not bring a Department's or agency's staffing level above that of 1 January, 1993.

Subject to approved staffing levels being adhered to, sanction to make appointments in the Civil Service up to HEO level has been delegated to Departments under the administrative budget initiative. Above HEO level, the sanction of my Department is required for the filling of posts.

In the case of NCSSBs, the filling of vacancies requires the prior approval of the relevant parent Department and of the Minister for Finance. In recent years, requests for recruitment were generally favourably considered where: (a) vacancies arose in revenue generating areas and could be filled on a fully self-financing basis; (b) where vacant posts arising as a result of natural wastage were considered essential to the functioning of the organisation and could not be filled by way of internal redeployment; and (c) where it could be shown that the impact of Structural Fund drawdowns had significantly increased the workload of individual NCSSBs.

A review by my Department showed that some NCSSBs had circumvented existing reporting and sanctioning requirements, mainly by employing staff in categories other than on a full-time permanent basis, for example contract-consultancy staff and had not notified these new employees either to their parent Department or to the Department of Finance. For the NCSSB sector overall, however, the number employed on a contract basis is not significant. At end-1992, the latest date for which returns are available, a total of 622 staff were employed on a contract basis, less than 8 per cent of total numbers employed.

Given our tight budgetary circumstances, the Government considered that the resumption of growth in civil and public service numbers which had become evident in recent years could not be allowed to continue and that action had to be taken to contain the situation in 1993.