CUTS TO STAFFING levels in the civil service are to be phased out and recruiting is to begin again next year it was confirmed today.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin made the announcement this afternoon saying that, “public Service staff numbers have been reduced by 10% since 2008″.
“I am pleased to announce that there will be no further overall reductions,” he then added.
Howlin’s department was created as part of the coalition’s 2011 Programme for Government and had responsibility for reducing wage and staffing levels in the civil service.
He told the Dáil today as part of the Government’s Budget announcement that individual departments will now be subjected to less oversight:
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.
As part of efforts to reduce staffing levels, a morotorium on hiring had been in place in the civil service. This will now be ended “in a targeted and focused way”, said Howlin:
In tandem with the announcements I have made regarding additional teachers and gardaí, 2015 will also see a resumption of recruitment into the civil service. We need to provide opportunities for people to enter employment in our public services.
The details of the new hiring plan will be launched “in the coming weeks”.
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