asked the Minister for Finance if he will state the number of male and female temporary clerks employed in Government Departments within the past ten years who are about to be placed on the unemployed list due to their failure to pass an examination in competition with much younger students from the various colleges and schools who were studying whilst the temporary clerks in question were engaged in important national work and if he will ensure that these clerical workers are not disemployed.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Disemployment of Temporary Clerks.
Mr. A. Byrne
The Deputy's question appears to be based on a misapprehension. The examinations recently held to give certain temporary staff an opportunity to gain establishment were confined to that group, subject to the proviso that candidates must have had at least one year's service and must have been serving on 1st May, 1950. There was, therefore, no question of such officers being in competition with candidates still at school. Officers who fail to secure permanent appointments as a result of these examinations will, subject to staffing requirements, be retained on their existing weekly tenure. The Deputy is perhaps unaware that an opportunity of securing establishment has already been afforded to this group, examinations for that purpose having been held in 1947.
Mr. Byrne
Will the Parliamentary Secretary see that employees who gave ten years' service during the emergency will not now be placed upon the unemployed list, no matter what the circumstances of the examination were? If they were capable of doing the practical work efficiently and well, surely they ought to be kept on.
That is a separate question.
It is quite a different question.