In general, staff recruited to the public service to cover short-term leave over the summer months are drawn from the Temporary Clerical Officer (TCO) competitions run by the Public Appointments Service (PAS).
Assignments from the 2014 TCO recruitment campaign commenced in April and to date 1,314 assignments have been made. Assignments were made to 8 Government Departments and to 20 bodies in the wider public service including the HSE and the local authority sector. The greatest number of assignments were to the Department of Social Protection and the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. A complete breakdown of assignments by Department is not available at present but will be provided directly to the Deputy when compiled.
People who have participated in public service incentivised early retirement or redundancy schemes such as the Civil Service Incentivised Scheme for Early Retirement (ISER), the Department of Health Targeted Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) Scheme and Voluntary Redundancy Schemes (VRS) are subject to restrictions on future entry to the civil and public service. Candidates being assigned are required to declare whether they have previously availed of such schemes.
The statistics collected by PAS on recruitment competitions do not include the number of appointees that are retirees, students or unemployed.