Public sector recruitment ban ends

The Government has announced an end to the long-running moratorium on recruitment in the public sector with posts to be created in the civil service next year.

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin said numbers in the sector had been reduced by 10% since 2008 and he said the time had come for the Government to provide opportunities for people to take up jobs in the public services. He also confirmed that he will launch a new plan for civil service renewal in the coming weeks.

A recruitment embargo began in the health service in 2007 and spread across the public sector. There have been derogations from the moratorium at various times in order to fill shortages in a number of professions.

Trade unions representing staff in the sector welcomed the news. Impact, one of the country’s largest public service unions, said the “lengthy” moratorium had seen remaining staff put under enormous pressure to maintain services.

Impact general secretary Shay Cody said: “News that public service numbers face no further cuts is welcome. That there is to be recruitment in some areas will be especially welcome news to hard-pressed staff who have faced the challenge of increased demands on the services they work in.

“This has built up every year since the moratorium was applied and as numbers continued to fall. The announcement of new posts marks an end to that phase, and hopefully the beginning of a new phase of recruitment which will be vital to the sustainability of services across the public sector.”

The Civil Public and Services Union said it welcomed the end of what it described as the “crippling” embargo on public sector employment. It said it awaited the publication of the civil service reform plan with considerable interest.

“Again we fear this announcement may be meaningless unless significant recruitment and promotion plans are sanctioned for front-line staff including administration in central Government,” said the union’s general secretary Eoin Ronayne.

Brendan Howlin said investment in public services will be targeted at “priority areas” and would be linked closely with reform.

“This Government is not going to allocate resources to services that are unreformed,” he warned. “An important part of the reform agenda is greater autonomy for departments and agencies to manage their own staffing levels.

“From next year I am pleased to announce that departments will have discretion over staffing levels within an overall pay framework.”