Vol. 442 No. 1
66 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Finance the categories and grades of public servants who are precluded from standing for election and those who are precluded from membership of a political party; the basis for this bar; and the regulations which give effect to this bar.
My direct responsibility relates only to the Civil Service where the arrangements in regard to political activity are as follows:
(1) Civil servants are not permitted to stand for election to either House of the Oireachtas, or to the European Parliament. This restriction applies to all categories of staff and is provided for in the Electoral Act, 1992, and the European Parliament Elections Acts, 1977 to 1993.
(2) Civil servants in the industrial categories and in manipulative, sub-clerical and manual grades are free to engage in political activity, subject to the general restriction in relation to parliamentary elections. Civil servants in this category may, therefore, contest local elections.
(3) 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 as the staff referred to at (2), but officers employed on particular types of work may have their applications refused.
