The following is the position with regard to civil service appointments to my Department via a route other than the Public Appointments Service (PAS):
1. I have appointed two Special Advisers, at the grade of Principal, in accordance with the Public Service Management Act, 1997 and the Guidelines on Staffing of Ministerial Offices issued by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
2. My Department runs two annual internship programmes which are advertised in participating colleges. Up to nine interns are assigned to the Information Systems Internship Programme and up to four are assigned to the Data Science/Statistics Internship Programme. The programmes run for six and nine months respectively and the interns are assigned at the Executive Officer grade. An excluding order in respect of each of these appointments has been made by the Commission for Public Service Appointments under the Public Service (Management and Recruitment) Act 2004.