Redeployment
The Public Service Agreement 2010-14 acknowledges that flexible redeployment is necessary to sustain the commitment to job security in the context of sustaining the delivery of public services alongside the targeted reduction in Public Service numbers over the coming years.
It provides for agreed redeployment arrangements to apply in the Civil Service and in the Health, Education, Non-Commercial State Sponsored Body (NCSSB), and Local Authority sectors.
For all sectors redeployment will take precedence over recruitment, transfers and promotions except where special skills are required or other major constraints apply.
Public Appointments Service Panels
The Public Appointments Service (PAS) operates a system of Resource Panels of staff who have been identified as available for redeployment. These panels will be used to fill approved priority posts. A dedicated website which will include additional guidance and information for employers and staff is being developed and the link will be provided once it becomes operational.
Aside from the panel system redeployment has also taken place in the context of structural reorganisation and the transfer of staff between Departments under other mechanisms which are specifically recognised in the Agreement. Some of these processes are ongoing. For example:
- The increased staffing needs of the Department of Social Protection caused by the rise in the Live Register have been met within the existing resources of the Civil Service by the redeployment of over 450 staff from other Government Departments, mainly by means of a staffing levy.
- The Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2010 provides for the transfer of the Community Welfare functions of the HSE and some functions of FÁS to the Department of Social Protection. Together with the earlier transfer of the Combat Poverty Agency almost 2,000 associated staff will move to that Department.
- Other moves of staff between Departments such as the release of 30 staff to the CSO for census collation work in Swords.
Significant redeployment and reassignment has also taken place within Departments and agencies to meet operational priorities including the redistribution of functions of staff who are not being replaced, but this is not monitored centrally.
Further information can be found in the Redeployment chapters of Public Service Agreement.
Details of Circular 8/2010 Redeployment Scheme are provided in this link.
Decentralisation
Over 3,400 staff in total have decentralised to 37 locations since the commencement of the 2003 programme. Of these approximately 2,300 staff have moved under 32 projects in respect of which permanent accommodation has been procured or provided at 24 locations. Apart from a few recently completed projects which have still to reach their full staff complement, these projects are now complete in terms of building and staffing. Advance parties totalling almost 1,100 staff are in place in temporary accommodation in respect of a further 18 projects where permanent accommodation has yet to be provided.
The Government agreed in November 2011 that the Decentralisation Programme should be cancelled in the light of the budgetary and staffing outlook. Those projects where there was no permanent accommodation or advance party in place were cancelled. Projects for which permanent accommodation was already provided and to which staffing assignments were substantially completed were left in situ, to be managed in the same way as other regionally based offices and Departments.
The Government also agreed that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform would review 22 decentralisation projects, in liaison with the OPW and the relevant Departments. These included 21 projects where temporary accommodation had been provided, and some others that had business/operational effectiveness issues that required further consideration. Also included was a review of the administrative arrangements for the Department of Defence project in Newbridge.
Details of the outcome of the review, announced on 16th February 2012, together with further information on the Programme is available on the decentralisation website
