Civil servants - Government rewarding incompetence

Civil servants who retire are being rehired on a temporary basis because there is nobody trained to replace them.

The Government therefore rehires them to do the job for which they are drawing their pensions.

Last year the Government paid over €1.13m to rehire former civil servants to do such jobs. Almost half of the total amount was paid out by the Department of Justice, which spent €571,000 re-employing twenty-four retired civil servants. The Attorney Generals’ offices spent €154,000 rehiring just two former officials on a contract basis.