Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 30 Sep 2003

Vol. 571 No. 1

Written Answers. - Departmental Staff.

Conor Lenihan

Ceist:

341 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Minister for Finance the steps his Department takes in the advertising of civil and public service positions to ensure that citizens born and living north of the Border are given every entitlement to apply for jobs here. [19680/03]

Conor Lenihan

Ceist:

342 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Minister for Finance if his Department has framed a policy in relation to advertising public service vacancies in the news media that ordinarily circulates in the North including the exclusively Northern based media in order that Irish citizens can apply for public service positions here. [19681/03]

Conor Lenihan

Ceist:

343 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Minister for Finance if the Civil Service Commission will include the news media in the North of Ireland in their regular advertisements in the public service here. [19682/03]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 341 to 343, inclusive, together.

The advertisement and recruitment process to fill professional, technical and general service grades in the Irish Civil Service is carried out by the Civil Service Commissioners. Competitions are frequently advertised in theIrish Independent on Thursdays and The Irish Times on Fridays and these newspapers are available in Northern Ireland. Competitions are also published on the Civil Service Commission's website at www.publicjobs thereby ensuring that the notice is far reaching and available to all. All potential applicants within the European Union have equal entitlement to apply once they meet the relevant eligibility criteria.

In determining print media advertising, consideration is given to the potential target audience on a competition by competition basis. The Civil Service Commissioners have no immediate plans to include advertising in the Northern Ireland news media as a matter of course. However, advertisements for specialist posts are placed there from time to time and such advertisements frequently appear in newspapers, journals, and periodicals which are circulated in Northern Ireland. As an example, in the last six months two director posts in the Environmental Protection Agency were advertised in theBelfast Telegraph and the Irish News; an engineer grade II post in the Office of Public Works and a fire safety officer post in the Irish Prison Service were advertised in Recruitment Ireland.