Revenue denies policy of gender balancing in recruitment to high-ranking roles

The new revenue commissioners offices in Blackpool, Cork. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

The Revenue Commissioners has denied the existence of a gender balancing policy in its recruitment after figures revealed that women are taking the vast majority of Principal Officer positions in recent times.

Out of ten appointments to Principal Officer level within Revenue in 2020, nine of them were awarded to female candidates.

In 2019, nine appointments at the same level were awarded to female candidates and two to male, giving a split over the two years of 18 to 3.

By contrast, in 2016, eight appointments were made with a 50:50 split of four male and four female.

Meanwhile, six Principal Officer roles were transferred outside Dublin between 2016 and August 2020, five of which were awarded to female employees.

In response to a query from the Irish Examiner, asking whether the trends seen are indicative of either a declared or unwritten policy for gender balance, a Revenue spokesman said: “There is no Revenue policy relating to gender balance.

 “Revenue recruitment and selection processes operate in line with our public sector duty to promote equality, eliminate discrimination, and protect human rights. Revenue is an equal opportunities employer,” he said.

Principal Officer (PO) level within the Irish Civil Service is the third-highest rank possible, behind Assistant Secretary and Secretary General, the chief executive for each Government department. 

The rank’s remuneration begins at €87,325 per annum and can rise as high as €115,051 with long service increments.

Sources within the department have suggested that the current imbalance in appointments is dissuading qualified male candidates from applying for PO roles due to “an assumption that it isn’t a level playing field”.

All told, of 54 such senior roles recruited for since 2016, 70% or 38 appointments have been made to female staff. Some 848 applicants were noted for those roles, split relatively evenly at 429 male and 419 female. 

In 2019 and 2020, when the appointments were most skewed, 102 men applied versus 94 women, equating to a 19% chance of success for women and a 3% chance for men.

In the agency’s most recent annual report it is stated that: “We are committed to equality and actively support initiatives to improve gender balance at all levels and have made significant advances in this regard over the last six years.” 

However, no official statement of policy is given.

Revenue has three employees of the top rank of Secretary General. All three are male.

At a conference of more than 200 Assistant Principal officers in February of this year, at which Revenue Secretary General Niall Cody was a speaker, three separate anonymous questions were submitted, asking “when the strategy of promoting female colleagues is concluding”, “how does one motivate a male colleague when it is clear that female staff are more likely to be promoted”, and “when is the strategy of positive discrimination ceasing”.