Background to Redeployment – the Public Service Agreement 2010-14 (Croke Park Agreement)

The Public Service Agreement 2010-14 (Croke Park Agreement).
provides for agreed redeployment arrangements to apply in the Civil Service and in other parts of the public service. Under the Croke Park Agreement, redeployment generally takes precedence over all other methods of filling a vacancy and supersedes any existing agreements on the deployment of staff. It sets out the agreed redeployment arrangements:

within the Health, Education, and Local Authority sectors, which are managed within those sectors, and
within and between the Civil Service and Non-Commercial State Sponsored Bodies (NCSSB) (including the panel arrangements);
provides that cross sectoral redeployment will follow the arrangements agreed for the NCSSBs.

Redeployment allows staff to be moved from activities which are of lesser priority, or which have been rationalised, reconfigured, or restructured, to areas of greater need. In practical terms these arrangements represent a means of facilitating the targeted reduction in public service numbers in the period 2010 to 2014 while sustaining the ongoing delivery of services.

The Croke Park Agreement provides for a system of Civil Service and NCSSB Resource Panels for staff to be redeployed. These panels contain details of the posts identified for redeployment on foot of business reorganisation or a need to meet lower ECF numbers across the public service. The overall panel is operated by the Public Appointments Service. It is important to note that while staff may be moved between different locations as a consequence of the redeployment arrangements, these arrangements were not designed for and are not used to facilitate requests from individuals for transfers to address personal circumstances.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform circular (Circular 8/2010 Redeployment Scheme) setting out the arrangements in the Civil Service was issued in July 2010, following ratification of the Agreement. A “Redeployment Toolkit” setting out the background and the processes involved has since been agreed with the staff unions. This is available here and includes a section setting out responses to Frequently Asked Questions.

The progress made in implementing the provisions of the Croke Park Agreement, including examples of progress on redeploying public servants within and across sectors of the public service, is set out in the website of the Implementation Body at http://implementationbody.gov.ie/progress-and-delivery/.

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