ONLY ONE person from outside the Civil Service has been appointed to a top-level position within the service over recent years.
Figures released by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan show between 2005 and 2009 more than 300 applications were made from outside the public service for posts at the levels of secretary general, deputy secretary and assistant secretary.
The Minister said that one person from outside the public service was appointed in 2007 as part of a competition held by the Top Level Appointments Committee.
In an answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Richard Bruton of Fine Gael, the Minister said between 2005 and 2009, the committee held a total of 82 competitions.
In 2007 there were 106 applications from outside of the public service for top Civil Service posts; there were 150 in 2008.
In 2009, the number of such applications fell to 33.
Mr Lenihan said there was one person selected for a top-level post from the applications received from outside of the public service.
He said during the same five-year period, three applicants from the wider public service were selected for top-level Civil Service posts.
Mr Bruton said last night that part of the problem was the Civil Service was not sufficiently open to outside skills.
He said experience had shown the management of key strategic changes over recent years, such as the climate change strategy, the health strategy or the decentralisation strategy, had not been successful.
He said while the private sector had shown it did not have all the answers, the quality of management in the public service, as well as the performance structures for evaluating such performance, had to be examined.
Mr Lenihan said in his reply to the parliamentary question that the appointments committee held competitions for and advised Ministers and the Government on appointments to Civil Service posts at the levels of secretary general, deputy secretary and assistant secretary and equivalent.
“Since early 2007, the policy has been that open competitions are held for assistant secretary and deputy secretary and equivalent posts, and more recently this policy has been extended to secretary general posts, with the exception of a limited number of secretary general posts which are filled by the Government without a TLAC competition,” he said.