Anthony Foley: How many public sector workers are there in Ireland?

Health and education are by far the largest two sectors for public service employment, accounting for 276,042 jobs or 69.5% of all public sector workers

The number of people working in health, which now accounts for 37.7% of all public-sector jobs, has increased since 2015. File picture

How many public servants are there, where do they work, and are there too many or too few of them?

There were 400,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the public sector, or one public-sector worker for every 13.3 persons in the population, in 2020, which compares with 13.8 persons for the population in 2008.