Michael Ring
Question:120 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Finance if he has any plans to allow civil servants who had to retire on marrying before 1973, and who now wish to return to work, to rejoin the Civil Service. [10939/01]
Written Answers - Civil Service Staff.
All Civil Service competitions are open to former civil servants, including those who had to retire on marrying before 1973, provided they are eligible for the competitions.
In addition, competitions specifically targeting former civil servants are advertised from time to time. The Civil Service Commission is currently making appointments from a recent competition for clerical officer which was confined to former civil servants. It is proposed to advertise a similar competition for executive officer towards the end of May 2001. Targeted recruitment of former civil servants to posts at administrative officer level is also planned.
Michael Ring
Question:121 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Finance the number of positions within the Civil Service which are vacant; and if there are any problems with recruiting staff. [10940/01]
Departments and Offices have a workforce of over 30,000 persons and so can always be expected to have some vacant posts, reflecting natural gaps between the occurrence of vacancies through retirements, resignations and promotions, and the filling of those vacancies.
Comprehensive information on the vacancy position in the Civil Service is available from individual Departments. However, vacancies in the main entry grades are filled exclusively or substantially from panels established through Civil Service Commission competitions, and the following information on the numbers of such vacancies has been supplied by the Civil Service Commission:
|
Clerical Officer |
90 |
|
Executive Officer |
40 |
|
Administrative Officer |
30 |
I understand from the commission that it expects to be able to fill these vacancies shortly.
The Civil Service Commission, as the primary recruitment agency for the Civil Service, has had a major part to play in addressing the recruitment challenges faced by the Civil Service in recent times. The commission has adopted a flexible approach to meet these challenges, with competitions being held more often, where necessary, and with selection methodologies being streamlined so as to produce a faster and more efficient throughput of suitable candidates. This strategy has been particularly successful in relation to the clerical officer grade, where a combination of more frequent competitions and a single-stage assessment methodology has helped the commission to substantially remove previous shortfalls in the supply of personnel to departments.
Michael Ring
Question:122 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Finance the number of civil servants who had to retire on marriage grounds before 1973. [10941/01]
The information requested by the Deputy is not available. However, I do have some information on marriage gratuities which were normally paid to women who had to retire on marriage grounds provided they had the necessary qualifying service. The qualifying period was six years service before 1 January 1968 and five years service after that date. While I do not have information on the number of such gratuities paid in all years prior to 1973; in the period 1962 to 1973, on which I have information, the number paid was 1,240.