The Commission for Public Service Appointments, set up under the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004, has recently published codes of practice governing recruitment to the Civil Service. The code prescribes the necessary standard of probity, merit, equity and fairness to be applied to recruitment and provides for a review-appeals procedure.
Most recruitment for this Department and for senior posts in local authorities is carried out by the Public Appointments Service also set up under the above mentioned Act. The Department also directly recruits a number of staff to industrial and contract posts. The code of practice will be applied to all such recruitment in the future. In the case of competitions held prior to the publication of the code of practice, it has been the practice of my Department to examine and respond to any complaints received to ensure that due process had been followed.
Recruitment by State bodies under the aegis of the Department, and posts, other than senior posts in local authorities, is generally carried out directly by those bodies. The details supplied with the question do not allow my Department to identify the particular competition or the recruiting body concerned. If the Deputy would like to supply this additional information I will have this matter examined further.
