Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 17 May 2001

Vol. 536 No. 4

Written Answers. - Civil Service Personnel.

Jack Wall

Ceist:

66 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Finance the steps being taken to reduce the number of personnel leaving the Civil Service; his views on whether the level of pay at many grades is contributing to the number; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14231/01]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

I propose to deal in turn with the non-pay and pay aspects of the Deputy's question.

As the Minister responsible for the Civil Service, I am keenly interested in ensuring that it can recruit and retain a high quality workforce. The Civil Service has more than 30,000 employees. To perform their jobs and undertake their roles effectively these staff must be trained and developed in a way which responds to their aspirations for more challenging and fulfilling work. This involves more focused training and development based on the performance management and development system. It also involves improved career paths and better workplace conditions which enhance job satisfaction and motivation, and lead to more effective performance. These are important elements in promoting the Civil Service as an "employer of choice" in the current highly competitive labour market.

The ongoing development of policies which are sensitive to employees' commitments outside the workplace is a critical component of the Civil Service response to the tight labour market. The Civil Service as an employer has always been a leader in introducing such "family friendly" policies. Since the mid-1980s, the job-sharing scheme has allowed staff to apply to work half their normal hours in a number of combinations such as a split week or a week-on, week-off pattern. Discussions with staff representatives on a new worksharing scheme are at an advanced stage. It is intended that this scheme will expand the existing pattern of job sharing by providing a much wider range of attendance patterns.

In addition, as I announced in the budget speech, £10 million is to be made available over the next two years to build 15 crèches for the children of civil servants. Work is well under way on the scheme for capital grants to fund premises and equipment for these crèches and to establish a management structure to ensure proper childcare and management standards within these crèches.

These policies are critical to ensuring true equality of opportunity for civil servants, irrespective of gender or family status and are becoming increasingly important in attracting and retaining committed and motivated staff.

As regards the pay of Civil Service grades, I do not see a case for setting Civil Service pay at a level which would lead pay levels in the rest of the economy. However, a fundamental part of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, as far as the public service is concerned, is the provision for a benchmarking exercise which will carry out a comparative examination of pay and jobs in the public and private sectors. Effectively this will deliver a pay review for the public service. In its terms of reference the benchmarking body is specifically asked to have regard to the need to recruit and retain staff. Practically all the major public service groups, including grades represented by the Civil and Public Service Union and the Federated Union of Government Employees, the unions representing the lower paid grades in the Civil Service, are being directly considered in this exercise. The entry points of the clerical and other recruitment scales have already been improved by the removal of certain age points.

Question No. 67 answered with Question No. 33.