The public sector did not contribute to the 45,000 increase in jobs last year, according to figures produced by the Department of Finance.

They show that public sector employment rose only fractionally in the year to last December, with a reduction of almost 2,000 targeted for this year.

A recent Fás report had estimated, on the basis of Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures, that public sector employment rose by 20,000 in the year to the third quarter of 2003, leading to criticism of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, who promised to reduce public sector employment last year and reduce it by 5,000 over two subsequent years.

This week's CSO figures suggested a similar trend in the fourth quarter of last year, on the basis of its total employment figures for public administration, health and education.

However, Mr McCreevy has said that adding these categories in the CSO figures and using this as an estimate of public sector employment is misleading. This is because the health and education sectors include parts of the private sector.

Also, the CSO figures count full-time and part-time employment, while the Department's data are "whole-time equivalents", effectively a measure of full-time employment.

His Department's figures show total public service employment at an estimated 279,991 last December, just over 700 higher than the 279,274 at the end of 2002. The projected total for the end of this year is 278,145.

The figures show a small increase in the health sector last year, which the Department attributes to the public sector stepping in where certain private and voluntary providers had withdrawn services. Numbers rose by 1,250 in the education sector.

As the CSO figures show a 12,000 rise in employment in the health sector, the Department's data suggests a surprisingly large rise in private sector health employment.