Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 December 2021
286. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason the competition for Irish language executive officer had two choices for candidate to choose from, interdepartmental and open competition; the difference between them; if applicants could opt to be on both; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62608/21]
View answerRecruitment to the civil service may be way of open competition or by confined promotional competitions for existing civil servants on an internal (within one Department/Office) or interdepartmental (across all Departments/Offices) basis. The panels established from each competition are used to fill vacancies as they arise during the lifetime of the panels.
As the Deputy is aware, the Public Appointments Service (PAS) is the principal recruiter of the civil service. In 2019, PAS undertook Open and Interdepartmental competitions on behalf of all civil service employers for Executive Officers with fluency in the Irish Language.
Existing civil servants may have applied for both competitions provided they met the eligibility criteria specified for each competition undertaken by PAS. As the competencies to be assessed as part of the selection process were identical, a candidate who opted to apply for both competitions was only permitted to sit the assessment tests/interviews, etc. only once even if applying for both competitions.
The panels established from this 2019 competition will expire on 31 December 2021 and new competitions will be advertised by PAS in late January 2022 that may be used to fill vacancies arising over the next 2 years.
