asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries why there are eight grades of officers in his Department, with a difference in salary between grades 1 and 8 of £800 per annum, doing field work in view of the fact that all the officers are required to have the same qualifications; and why officers with 25 years' service are still temporary while others with as little as two years' service are established.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Departmental Officer Grades.
6.
The arrangement under which 24 categories of officers in my Department were merged in eight grades of agricultural officer is based on an agreed recommendation made by the official and staff sides in 1955 under the Scheme of Conciliation and Arbitration for the Civil Service.
Four of the eight grades are recruitment grades and the other four are mainly promotion and supervisory grades. While a basic qualification common to all the grades at recruitment is a year's attendance at an agricultural college, additional qualifications, which vary according to the type of work of each grade, are also necessary.
The appointment of officers to established posts is through the medium of competitions conducted by the Civil Service Commissioners. There is, in fact, only a very small number of officers with 25 years' service who have so far failed to secure established appointments.
Surely the Parliamentary Secretary is aware that the qualificatins required by these people could be divided into those required by a supervisory grade and others? Does he not agree that this system of breaking up the groups into eight grades and giving the same representation in arbitration and conciliation to a grade with three persons as to a grade representing 400 means, in effect, that the Department can manipulate the grades in a certain way so that certain people concerned are not getting a fair do? Does he not agree that the present system has caused great dissatisfaction in the entire Civil Service and would he look into the matter again with a view to reducing the number of grades to two?
I refute categorically that the Department manipulate the grades in any way. It has been agreed by the staff and the establishment.
Surely the Parliamentary Secretary understands what I mean? If 400 people have the same representation as ten people on the panel, surely that is not a democratic way to operate, even in a Government Department?
Can the Parliamentary Secretary say whether there are included in the eight grades mentioned people who were seconded to the Department as agricultural officers from the milk board?
There are specialised agricultural officers within the framework of the Department. They are employed only in very special cases, such as potatoes, and, in fact, only one person is involved.
And he has two representatives on the board?
In the majority of cases, there is an equal proportion. There are two main categories. Those in the first four grades are normally in the supervisory category and the bigger number is in the remaining grades.
Surely the Parliamentary Secretary is aware that there is no one at all in grade 2?
There is one person in grade 2.
He must have been appointed very recently. And he has two representatives?