Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 1 Jun 1999

Vol. 505 No. 6

Written Answers. - Departmental Staff.

John Perry

Question:

211 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if, further to Parliamentary Question No. 263 of 18 May 1999, his attention has been drawn to the fact that no promotions to staff officer have been made from the seniority list for at least two and a half years in his Department's offices in College Road, Sligo; the vacancies, if any, which will be filled from the seniority list; if so, when these vacancies will be filled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14313/99]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

Staff officer is a promotion grade. There are two methods of promotion, direct internal promotion within the Department and assignment by the Civil Service Commission from an interdepartmental panel. In accordance with arrangements agreed with the staff side at general council, there is a series to be followed between internal promotions and assignments from the interdepartmental panel. One in every four appointments to staff officer in individual locations in the Department, including Sligo, falls to be made from the Civil Service Commission interdepartmental panel, set up on the basis of a competitive process. The other three appointments are made by direct promotion within the Department, based on seniority and suitability and taking account of location preferences.

However, in a situation where the Civil Service Commission is not in a position to make an assignment for a particular location, for example, where the panel for that location is exhausted, the normal practice is to fill the vacancy by direct internal promotion, thus incurring a liability to the interdepartmental panel which must be met at the earliest opportunity.

The most recent interdepartmental confined competition for promotion to staff officer was announced in July 1997 for which individual Departments held preliminary interviews from which candidates were selected to go forward to central interviews, which were held in 1998.

In the period before the results of the competition became available a number of vacancies arising at staff officer level in Sligo, which would have been due to the interdepartmental panel in order to maintain the series, were in fact filled by direct internal promotion pending the setting up of the interdepartmental panel, thus incurring debts to the panel. This accounts for the fact that a number of the most recent vacancies at staff officer level in Sligo have been filled by assignment from the interdepartmental panel. While a number of clerical officers have been appointed from that panel, only those assigned to this Department's Sligo offices reckon for the series maintained for that location. Future vacancies at staff officer level will continue to be filled in accordance with these arrangements.