Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Dec 2001

Vol. 545 No. 4

Written Answers. - Civil Service Recruitment.

Sean Fleming

Question:

204 Mr. Fleming asked the Minister for Finance the number of people who were informed by the Civil Service Local Appointments Commission of their examination number and place of examination in respect of the competition for positions for prison officer in the Irish Prison Service and subsequently received a letter informing them that they were not eligible for this examination; his views on whether this is an acceptable manner in which to run a competition; if the original notification for the examination will be transferred to a subsequent sitting and the letter stating people were not eligible will be set aside; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30541/01]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

A competition for the post of prison officer in the Irish Prison Service was advertised on 27 September 2001 and 3,456 applications were received.

The Civil Service Commissioners agreed that a trial system of application by telephone could be piloted for this competition to facilitate smoother operation for both the candidate and the Civil Service Commission. Inadvertently, 125 applications were accepted from candidates who were outside the age limits and on 7 November 2001 invitations to attend the written tests issued in error to these applicants. This came to light before the tests were held and these applicants were then contacted by letter on 9 November 2001 and advised that as they did not satisfy the requirements of the competition, they could not be deemed eligible for these posts, so there would be no point in their attending the testing stage.

The age limits, along with all the other requirements for the competition, are specified in the statutory competition regulations made by the Civil Service Commissioners under section 16 of the Civil Service Commissioners Act, 1956. In this instance candidates were required, on 1 October 2001, to be at least 19 years of age and under 35 years of age. As these regulations are statutorily binding, it is not possible to accommodate applicants who do not meet these requirements at later sittings of the test stage of this competition. The Commissioners have a policy of reviewing all elements of recruitment processes which will include, in this case, the pilot system for accepting applications by telephone.