A serious "brain drain" to the private sector is stripping the Civil Service of some of its brightest talent. Once considered a secure and pensionable job, senior civil servants are being wooed to private companies with more lucrative packages. The poor salary at the low clerical officer level is discouraging school-leavers from opting for a public service career.
New figures reveal that 1,794 positions across all grades remain unfilled in the 15 Government Departments. While a quarter, or 420, of the vacant positions are at the lowest level of clerical officer grade, with a starting wage of only £12,034 a year, the worrying trend is the significant number of middle and higher grade jobs that currently need to be filled.
At the higher level the figures show 88 vacant assistant principal posts, which carry a salary ranging from £32,765 to £44,995 a year. There are 10 vacant principal officer positions, with a salary level of between £43,773 to £57,686, and six assistant secretary jobs, with a salary ranging from £56,729 to £65,237. At the middle level, there are 197 higher executive officer jobs, with a salary ranging from £23,846 to £31,228 a year, vacant and 294 executive officer posts, with a salary of between £14,758 and £25,896, vacant.
The figures are contained in replies to a parliamentary question put to each of the 15 cabinet ministers by the Labour Party TD, Ms Mary Upton, this week. Ms Upton asked for the number of vacancies for each Civil Service grade and what steps were being taken to attract and keep staff.
Most seriously affected in terms of staffing is the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which has 754 vacancies. Among the vacancies are 44 for assistant principal officers, 58 vacancies for higher executive officers, 146 executive officers, and 170 clerical officers.
The figures also show there are 42 vacancies for probation and welfare officers and four vacancies for senior probation officers.
Mr O'Donoghue told Ms Upton that a number of the vacancies represented a significant number of new posts sanctioned by the Department in the last year. These were mainly jobs dealing with the processing of asylum-seekers and extra staff for the probation and welfare service.
He said he intended "exploring new ways of attracting as many suitably qualified staff".
The next hardest-hit Department is Agriculture, where there are 407 vacancies. However, 300 of these are posts sanctioned earlier this year for new or additional work on information technology systems, cattle movement monitors and slaughter.
The Department of Education and Science has 103 vacancies. Twenty-eight of these are for new psychologist posts.
In his Dail reply, the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, said Government Departments were facing the same labour market constraints as other sectors "and the filling of vacancies is taking longer than anticipated".
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, who is down 81 staff, said the Civil Service was experiencing difficulty in attracting and retaining staff in the current economic climate.
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, is down 65 staff, including three senior economists. Even the Taoiseach is not without problems, with 17 appointments to be filled in his Department.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, admitted in an address to the Institute of Personnel and Development during the summer that the Civil Service was facing an "acute problem" retaining staff. He said officials at senior, middle-ranking and lower levels were leaving Government Departments to take positions in the private sector.
Initiatives were needed to ensure that the Civil Service held its own in relation to attracting and retaining top-class people.
Senior Government sources said the situation was of huge concern. One senior civil servant said the main problem was that with fewer people seeking entry-grade jobs, there would be a shortage of candidates for top-level posts in 20 years.
The Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission recently carried out a survey on retention levels in the Civil Service and a report is being considered by the Strategic Management Implementation Group.
A PriceWaterhouse report earlier this year claimed a change in approach to recruitment was needed if the public service was to attract staff.
"A fundamentally different approach to recruitment will be required in the future if the public service is to remain an employer of choice and, therefore, to compete effectively for quality candidates in a highly buoyant employment market," the report said.
Carried out for the Office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commission, the report claimed that the commissioners were "hampered" in their ability to provide departments with the required level of service. It recommended more aggressive targeted promotion of the public service as an employer of choice.
An improved system of manpower planning and legislation more appropriate to modern-day requirements was also needed.