Private sector recruitment favoured option for filling civil service posts

THE head of the civil service believes the private sector provides a clear and attractive option for the recruitment of skilled personnel for top-level posts with the service.

However, just two posts were filled in this way in 2004, it emerged at the Dublin Economic Workshop 28th annual economic policy conference in Kenmare, Co Kerry, this weekend.

The secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach and secretary general to the Government, Dermot McCarthy, speaking in a personal capacity, said that bringing in workers from the private sector to the civil service was a "a clear and attractive option".