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Civil Service

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 September 2020

Tuesday, 29 September 2020

Ceisteanna (126)

Éamon Ó Cuív

Ceist:

126. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of civil servants recruited with a competence to do their business both through Irish and English in each of the past five years to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26475/20]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

As the Deputy will be aware, the Public Appointments Service (PAS) is the independent, statutory body which provides professional recruitment and selection services for appointments to the Civil Service.

Irish language usage is a core Government policy objective as stated in the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030 and its associated 5-Year Action Plan for the period 2018 to 2022. A Government decision of 30/10/2013 approved the introduction of measures to support Irish language proficiency in the Civil Service with a focus on increasing the cohort of functional bilingual Civil Servants to reflect the requirement for a more equitable, competency-based approach to recruitment.

PAS initially included Irish language proficiency as a separate stream for general service recruitment competitions. More recently, stand-alone competitions are being held to establish panels for entry grades; in these cases, all of the selection processes are conducted through Irish. This included a Clerical Officer competition in 2018 and Executive Officer in 2020 from which panels of qualified candidates were established.

General Service Grade assignments to Irish Language Posts since 2016 to date are set out below:

Grade

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Total

CO

0

20

0

15

0

35

EO

18

4

0

1

4

27

AO

0

4

0

0

0

4

HEO

0

1

0

0

0

1

AP

0

2

0

0

0

2

Total

18

31

0

16

4

69

In addition to General Service Grades, PAS separately recruits for posts across the Civil Service where the ability to communicate effectively in Irish is a requirement. These are specialist roles (e.g., School Inspectors, Aistritheoir, Parliamentary Reporter) and a summary of recruitment to such posts since 2016 is detailed below:

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Total

Specialist

8

4

11

14

4

41

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