Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 October 2013
121. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the position regarding Government Departments that have staff numbers in excess of their employment control framework staffing numbers and where staff in these Departments apply for redeployment to another Department and are not being released; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41621/13]
View answerIt is a matter for the management of each Government Department to manage its staff resources including the re-allocation of surplus staff through redeployment mechanisms. Since the beginning of 2011 alone the numbers employed in the public service have fallen by more than 15,000. While this level of reduction has posed challenges across many areas, frontline services have been protected and in parallel there has been real and permanent reform of service delivery models to the benefit of citizens and businesses.
Redeployment has been an important enabler of this managed reduction of public service numbers. Since 2010 more than 10,000 surplus staff have been redeployed into areas considered a priority e.g. Garda Vetting. Moreover, in order to strengthen the redeployment process, the Haddington Road Agreement provides for revisions to the redeployment arrangements to ensure more flexible and faster redeployment both within and across sectors. This should further improve the flow of staff across the public service and ensure that suitably skilled staff are available to meet the identified organisational, operational and business needs of public service organisations.
