Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 18 Oct 2000

Vol. 524 No. 3

Written Answers. - Departmental Staff.

Minister for the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Dempsey)

The vacancies for each civil service grade in my Department is as set out in the following table.

Grade	Number
Administrative Grades:
Assistant Principal	3
Administrative Officer	3
Higher Executive Officer	8
Executive Officer	6
Clerical Officer	4
Professional Grades:
Architectural Inspector	2
Supervising Housing Inspector	1
Engineering Inspector Grade 1	5
Inspector Grade 11	1
Senior Adviser	2
Local Government Auditor	1
Local Government Assistant Auditor	1
Trainee Auditor	1
Housing Inspector	5
Other Grades
Supervisory Driver Tester	4
Head Services Officer	1
Service Attendant	1

*Vacancies at assistant principal officer, administrative officer and higher executive officer level will be filled shortly on formation of relevant panels at interdepartmental and Departmental level. Other vacancies will be filled as offers of appointment are accepted by persons on panels established by the Civil Service Commission and the Department.

Officials from my Department in conjunction with other Departments have been looking at the problems of recruitment and retention of staff in the Civil Service in a changed economic environment. The Civil Service Commission set up an integrated marketing strategy and retention work group to examine and report on retention issues and to develop an integrated marketing programme. This report was presented to the SMI implementation group in August 2000 and is being considered by that group at the moment.

The changes evolving from the strategic management initiative will provide civil servants with a challenging work environment, training, development and better career opportunities in the future.