First ever open competition for principal-officer posts in the civil service to be held

The Government is to hold the first ever open competition for recruitment of senior staff at principal-officer level in the civil service. However, it is unclear whether a quota will be set for the number of external candidates to be appointed.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said that since 2011 a number of specialist posts in the civil service at principal-officer level had been filled by open competition. These included human resource manager in the Department of Finance and eGovernment and systems development manager within the Office of Chief Information Officer in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

However it said this would be the first occasion that a general open competition had been held for principal-officer posts in the civil service.

Pay scales
Principal officer is a senior management position in the civil service. Principal officers are usually responsible for managing a structural unit in a Government department.

Pay scales for the posts at present run from over €70,000 to more than €90,000, although the Government has not stated the rate that will apply to persons appointed under the planned new open competition.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said: “As part of the of the new-blood policy endorsed by the Government, there will be an open principal officer competition in 2014. The competition will be open to all suitably qualified candidates. The exact details of the competition will be decided closer to the launch of the competition.”

Programme commitment
In its programme for government, the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition said all appointments at principal officer level and above would be made open to external competition.

The programme said that at least one-third of such appointments would be reserved for candidates from outside the traditional civil service structure for five years.

Asked whether there would be a quota for the number of external candidates to be appointed as part of the forthcoming new open competition for principal-officer posts, the department said the “logistics for achieving targets are still be finalised”.

The Irish Times reported last week that in 2012, outsiders secured 25 per cent of posts at the very top level in the civil service – assistant secretary and above.

An assessment of the operation of the Top Level Appointment Commission given to Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin found that most of the external appointments involved private-sector applicants, while applications and appointments from the wider public and semi-state sector were low.