Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 2 November 2011
113 Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 347 of 18 October 2011 and of 143 of 6 October 2011, if he will collate and supply the saving to the State if all annual civil and public sector pensions were capped at €35,000 per year. [31989/11]
View answerInformation in respect of the Civil Service has been provided previously to the Deputy. It would be a matter for the respective Government Departments to arrange for the provision of the data being sought by the Deputy in respect of public service bodies under their aegis, if available. The data in respect of public service bodies under my aegis was provided in my reply to PQ No. 194 of the 18th October 2011.
114 Deputy Michael Creed asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress being made under the Croke Park agreement to facilitate staff transfers, promotions and redeployments across publicly funded agencies to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32151/11]
View answerThe deployment and management of staff are primarily a matter for the head of a Department or other body in the first instance, having regard to its employment control framework (ECF), policy and operational priorities and the budgets available. Changes in the services provided and their delivery, in the allocation of work and in the use of information technology are taking place on an ongoing basis within the public service, against a background of falling numbers. Significant redeployment of staff and reassignment of work has taken place in that context.
The Public Service Agreement 2010-14 (Croke Park Agreement) provides for agreed redeployment arrangements to apply in the Civil Service and in other parts of the public service, and for these arrangements to take precedence over other methods of filling vacancies. I should point out that the agreement applies to the Public Service. The term publicly funded bodies could include private and voluntary sector bodies which are grant aided but whose employees are not public servants. In general redeployment opportunities are to be sought in the first instance within each sector (e.g. health, education, local authority, etc.). Redeployment allows staff to be moved from activities which are of lesser priority, or which have been rationalised, reconfigured, or restructured, to areas of greater need. In practical terms these arrangements represent a means of facilitating the targeted reduction in public service numbers in the period to 2014 while sustaining the ongoing delivery of services. The progress made in implementing the provisions of the Croke Park Agreement, including examples of progress on redeploying public servants within and across sectors of the public service, is set out in the website of the Implementation Body at http://implementationbody.gov.ie/progress-and-delivery/ .
The reorganisation of Ministerial responsibilities earlier this year involved several transfers of functions between Departments which resulted in exchanges of staff and resources, often at multiple locations. This process also included transfers and reassignment of staff to achieve the best organisational fit and, in some cases, redeployment to meet priority needs in other organisations in particular locations. There has also been a substantial redeployment of staff in the context of structural re-organisations or levies, both of which are specifically recognised in the Croke Park Agreement. For example, in recent years over 500 staff transferred, mainly under levies and trawls, to the Department of Social Protection and to the CSO for Census 2011. A further 2,000 or so HSE and FÁS staff are transferring to the Department of Social Protection with their functions. The Public Appointments Service (PAS) has put in place a system of Resource Panels of Civil Service and State Agency staff to support the redeployment processes in those sectors agreed under the Croke Park Agreement. It is a matter for the employer to identify the number and grades of posts to be redeployed in the first instance and to upload the posts onto the PAS panels. Posts to be filled by redeployment are offered in the first instance to the relevant panel or panels. My Department is working on an ongoing basis with PAS and other stakeholders to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the redeployment processes and of the panel system in particular. Redeployments continue to take place across a range of grades, including promotion grades, across the various parts of the public service.
Where staff are not available for redeployment in a particular location, the post, if approved for filling by my Department, may be offered to staff who had already indicated an interest in transferring there, whether directly to the Department concerned or through the Central Applications Facility (CAF). Since 2003, the CAF has also facilitated the wishes of substantial numbers of public servants to transfer to alternative locations under the Decentralisation Programme. However, the possibilities to facilitate requests for such transfers are now more limited due to ongoing reductions in public service numbers and the necessity for redeployment to take precedence.
The Senior Public Service (SPS) provides mobility opportunities for Assistant Secretaries to move to posts at equivalent level within the civil service. As the SPS is extended to the wider public service, mobility will be extended on an incremental basis.
