Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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303. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the rules that are in place for carrying over annual leave respectively in the Civil Service and the wider public services; if any arrangements have been put in place to ensure that persons can carryover unused days of annual leave that have not been used due to the impact of the pandemic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9996/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I have responsibility for the non-pay terms and conditions of civil servants and therefore I can only comment in respect of the annual leave arrangements that apply in the Civil Service.

Circular 27/2003: Annual Leave sets out the standard rules in relation to the taking of annual leave in the Civil Service. The Civil Service currently operates a 3 year carryover rule in relation to accrued annual leave. Under this rule, any untaken statutory leave may be carried forward from Year 1 to Year 2 with the employees consent and taken within the first six months of Year 2. Any untaken leave that exceeds the statutory minimum allowance (4 working weeks) may be carried forward from Cycle Year 1 to Cycle Year 2.

Staff who are in Cycle year 2 can carry over any untaken statutory leave from Year 2 to Year 3 with the employees consent and taken within the first six months of Year . Any untaken leave that exceeds the statutory minimum allowance (4 working weeks) may be carried forward from Cycle Year 2 to Cycle Year 3.

For staff who are in Cycle year 3, carryover of annual leave at the end of the third year of the annual leave cycle is limited to the difference (if any) between the statutory minimum annual leave allowance (4 working weeks) and the officer’s untaken annual leave in excess of the statutory minimum which has been accrued during the third year of the cycle only. Any untaken leave over and above this difference will be forfeited.

Due to the unprecedented circumstances of the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 and the various associated business challenges at the time, a special arrangement was put in place for officers to remain in their cycle year i.e. at March 31st 2020 (the end of the leave year) to allow additional time to avail of their annual leave during the 2020/21 annual leave year. For equity reasons, a similar ‘roll back’ was applied to all staff in each of the different leave calendars (as certain civil service organisations have differing leave years). The associated issuing of communications and system updates for these 'roll backs' were processed by the National Shared Services Office (NSSO).

In 2021, a second roll back was implemented for all staff to allow more time for those in cycle year 3 to use the build up of annual leave that had been created in the system and also for clear advance notice to be given that there was no intention of any further rollbacks.

The NSSO issued a communication to all staff at the beginning of July 2021 to advise staff that it was not intended that there would be any further rolling back of the leave cycle years and advising all staff to discuss with their line managers how leave was to be used over the course of the year. This communication also reinforced to all staff of the importance of taking annual leave for health and wellbeing purposes.

In recent weeks, a reminder issued to all civil servants (of the previous communication that issued in July 2021), to advise staff who are in Leave Year 3 with outstanding leave to avail of, that they should discuss with their line managers how this is to be utilised.

Further to this, in acknowledgement of the possibility that there may be staff who were not in a position to use their leave due to the business impact of the pandemic in some areas of the civil service during the past year, communications issued to all civil service employers and staff that on this occasion only, local flexibility may be provided where appropriate, outside of the NSSO system, to allow for outstanding leave of those staff in cycle year 3 to be used beyond the end of the current annual leave year, in line with business requirements.