Four-year ban on public sector hirings

NO new non-essential staff will be hired in the public service for at least the next four years, the Government told unions yesterday.

In its long-awaited vision document for the public service up to 2014, the Department of Finance paints the picture of a severely shrunken service with many services curtailed or amalgamated and remaining staff expected to work much harder.

It says the moratorium on recruitment of staff will continue until the end of that year and combined with the continued availability of the incentivised career break and “family friendly policies” will “accelerate the rate of decline in numbers in the public service”. The decline looks likely now to exceed 25,000.