Just a handful of Departments have staff seconded to third-level

Dr Tony Holohan secondment to the role of Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership at Trinity College Dublin has been put on hold pending further review. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Dr Tony Holohan's secondment to Trinity College Dublin will be a rarity among government departments if it goes ahead.

Dr Holohan's proposed move to Trinity College has been put on hold pending further review about the circumstances of the proposed secondment from his role in the Department of Health to the university.

Multiple government departments told the Irish Examiner that they currently have no staff seconded to third-level institutions or academia and, of those who do, none pays the salary of the staff member who has changed roles.

While secondments across the public sector are common, the numbers of civil servants seconded to third-level institutions is extremely low, with only the Department of Justice confirming that it has a staff member seconded to a lecturing role.

The Departments of Rural and Community Development, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Transport, Housing, Taoiseach, and Social Protection all said that they have no staff members seconded to the third-level sector.

The Department of Justice said that Professor Sean Redmond was seconded to the University of Limerick School of Law in June 2016. 

He currently leads the Research Evidence into Policy, Programmes and Practice (REPPP) programme. 

This includes the Greentown research project which uncovered significant evidence of children’s engagement in crime networks and led to a newly designed community intervention programme based on that research.

The Department of Health said it has 12 of its own employees seconded out to other Government Departments or bodies under the aegis of Government Departments and 52 employees on secondment from elsewhere.

The Department said that "in terms of health sector secondments, the Department usually recoups the salary costs to the parent organisation".

However, the Department said that in some cases, it pays the seconded worker's salary "where the aim of the secondment is to further a policy or objective on the basis of a partnership between the parent organisation and the Department".

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said it has placed a single employee on temporary secondment in the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis (CVERA) in University College, Dublin (UCD) and this role is currently empty.

There is also currently one staff member seconded from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (D/FHERIS) to University College Cork (UCC) for two days per week.

Costs reimbursed

While the Department of Justice said it pays the salary of Professor Redmond on the Assistant Principal Officer (Higher) salary scale, "these costs are invoiced for reimbursement from the University". 

The secondment arrangement is reviewed on a regular basis, and was most recently extended until December 30, 2023.

This is the only secondment in place between the Department of Justice and the higher education sector.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) has two members of staff seconded to third-level organisations but neither of them are in academic roles and "in both cases they are either paid by the organisation or we recoup the salary".

The Department of Education said that it "currently only has two employees on secondment to organisations outside of the public sector and the Department does not bear the cost of these salaries". 

A spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Integration, Disability and Youth said it had nine staff members currently on secondment to other areas of the civil service, but pointed out that it was not paying the salary of any.

"As outlined in the DPER Guidance 'Where the secondment is between two civil service organisations, a secondee’s HR and pay record, and responsibility for maintenance of same, will transition to the receiving organisation for the duration of the assignment'."