Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 October 2022
127. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of recruitment campaigns that have been undertaken by the Public Appointments Service in 2021 and to date in 2022; the number of recruitment campaigns that were due to be undertaken by the Service in 2022 and which have been postponed or abandoned; if he will detail these specific campaigns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48782/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware the Public Appointments Service (PAS) is the independent, statutory body that provides professional recruitment and selection services to the civil service.
PAS has undertaken 482 campaigns in 2021 and 308 campaigns by the end of August 2022.
Once a client has supplied PAS with all of the documentation needed to run a campaign, PAS will agree a plan for the campaign, including agreeing timelines. Clients may on occasion decide to run a recruitment campaign themselves or cancel the request at that point. Once a plan has been agreed, PAS would generally not cancel or postpone a campaign, however this can occur. For example, PAS had to cancel a Consultant Cardiologist competition for St Luke's General Hospital, Carlow/Kilkenny in 2022 as the client wished to make essential changes to the Job Specification after advertisement. The new Job Specification was provided by the client and the post has since been re-advertised.
PAS will always try and respond to the needs of core clients by running all campaigns required to meet their resourcing needs and scheduling campaigns to meet urgent and unexpected needs (such as the Temporary Clerical Officer with Ukrainian Language Skills).
