Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Tierney for her comments. I have a number of questions. I find it odd that there is no onus on the PAS or the body for which it is recruiting to inform existing panel members that a panel is closed or a new one has been formed. That should be looked at either by the PAS or somebody else. I know of cases in which people, perhaps wrongly, presumed they were on a panel, only to find that a panel had superseded them. One such person was in RTE and should have reasonably expected that the panel was closed as they had been on it for four years at that stage. They lived under a presumption.

Is it best practice that panels should be closed? If there were ten positions on a panel and it lasted 12 months, applicants would know that if they did not get the position and another one came up within 12 months, they would be considered for it. Is that best practice or just a case-by-case position?

A substantial number of job applicants have gone through the PAS offices in the past year; 55,000 applications is a substantial number, and that is without the embargo on all positions having been lifted fully. Under 10% of those applicants end up going on. Is it just the quality of the applications and CVs? Are people who have applied for the wrong position excluded from being interviewed? I have sat on one or two interview panels where I have been handed papers and had to score out of ten and whatever. Is it a similar marking system for the interviews? Does the Irish language come into it? We had occasion here to begin some work on the Irish language component of selection processes within the Civil Service.