Vol. 468 No. 4
80 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Finance whether he will remove the blanket prohibition on civil servants standing for public office and ensure that any restriction (s) will be applied on an individual basis and only if and where essential to the common good, to effectively enable qualified civil servants, who so desire, to stand for public office under conditions similar to that applying to teachers. [15086/96]
The arrangements relating to civil servants and political activity are as follows:
(a) Civil servants are not permitted to stand for election to either House of the Oireachtas or to the European Assembly. This restriction applies to all categories of staff.
(b) Civil servants in the industrial and in the manipulative, sub-clerical and manual grades are free to engage in political activity, subject to the general restriction in relation to parliamentary elections. Civil servants in this category may, therefore, contest local elections.
(c) Members of the clerical grades in the Civil Service and civil servants in non-manipulative grades with salary maxima equal to or below the clerical officer maximum may apply for permission to engage in politics on the same basis as the staff referred to at (b) but officers employed on particular types of work may have their applications refused.
(d) All civil servants above clerical level are totally debarred from engaging in politics. However, personal assistants and special advisers in Ministers' offices are exempt from the present arrangements covering State employees and politics.
I have no plans to make any changes in this area at present. However, the matter is reviewed on an ongoing basis to ensure that no unnecessary restrictions apply. These restrictions are in place in order to maintain full public confidence in the impartiality of the Civil Service. The case of teachers is not directly comparable as they have a different relationship to the Government than applies to civil servants.
