A senior Civil Service trade union leader has warned the Government that unless it agrees to significant pay increases, people will stop applying for Civil Service jobs. The general secretary of the Public Service Executive Union, Mr Dan Murphy, said that the "astonishing and worrying" 40 per cent fall in applications for the Civil Service last year could be attributed to the tightening job market.
"Even worse, the numbers turning up for the written test in the competition are down by even more, with the result that, at that initial stage of the competition, there are substantially less than half the candidates this year." He said that there were also widespread reports that many of those ultimately successful in competition "did not turn up in the employing Departments at all, or do so for only a short time before leaving. Some positions had only been taken up as vacation jobs.
"All of this is extremely worrying for the capacity of the Civil Service for the future. Unless the Civil Service can recruit, retain and motivate a substantial number of the brightest people coming out of the education system, the work of government and the standard of public service has to go into decline," he said.