The Government has rejected claims by the Labour Party that it is preparing to charge an application fee for people seeking jobs in the public sector.Labour's finance spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton, claimed that a financial resolution in a Bill to reform public sector recruitment would pave the way for fees from job applicants.
Ms Burton said: "This proposal to introduce fees for public service job applicants was not discussed at any stage by the Minister for Finance when the Bill was presented a few weeks ago.
"It is clear that the Government proposes now to make money from applications made for public service jobs."
However, a spokesman for the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said this was not the case.
The provision was being inserted into the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill to continue a measure in place since since the the 1956 Act set out the existing recruitment procedures, he said. He added: "It's simply a continuation of an existing provision. There are no plans to introduce any such charge."
Separately, Mr McCreevy said he was introducing an amendment which would exclude special advisers to Government Ministers from the scope of the Bill.
While the Opposition had claimed the Bill would allow the appointment of advisers to the permanent Civil Services after their Ministers left office, Mr McCreevy said many criticisms of the Bill were unfounded.
