Structure of Irish Public Service

watna

Hi - I really didn't know what forum to put this in so mods, hope this is ok. I couldn't think where else to put it.

Basically, I work as a public servant for the NZ government (which I think in Ireland would be called a Civil Servant). I'm looking for some information on the structure of the Irish civil service as I am moving back to Dublin and want to be able to put the role I do here into context for future employers as it is quite specialist. Also, I think it's pretty bad that I know a lot of detail on how the NZ government works but not the government of the country I'm actually from. Hopefully someone here will be able to help

Basically, in NZ there are 32 goverment departments/ministries. Each one of these has a Chief Executive that is appointed independently of the government of the day, to ensure political neutrality.

From looking online I can see that there are 15 government departments and each one is headed by a secretary-general who works with the Minister for that department. What I'm wondering is, is that secretary-general appointed by the minister or is it an independent, neutral process?

Also, in NZ there are about 120 Crown entities - these include things like district health boards, universities and other government organisations like the transport authority, the housing corporation etc. These are fully owned by the Crown and are fully funded by the taxpayer. Each Crown entity is monitored by a government department and has a minister assigned to it. It is run by a board that is often chosen by the Minister responsible for monitoring it and the board appoints a chief executive. Is there an equivalent of this kind of organisation in the Irish structure? To clarify, Crown entities are entirely non-commercial unlike say, state owned enterprises such as the post service. I've been looking online but I can't quite find what I'm looking for.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any help you can give. It's almost impossible to explain to people what I do here so I'd like to have some knowledge of the Irish system to compare it to.

imme

OP I don't see how relating your NZ role to an Irish context will help a potential employer.
Will it make any difference to them, as long as you can do the job you're going for, shouldn't that be the consideration.

Anyway,
In Ireland Civil Servants are those categorised as those working in the civil service eg. Department of Finance etc.

Public service employees are those categorised as those working in the wider services that the state provides and operates, eg. teachers, local government employees, nurses etc.

Each of the 15 government departments is headed by a Secretary General. Up to now they came exclusively from the civil service, being promoted from the department.
The Minister doesn't appoint the Sec Gen.

There are suggestions that the process should be opened up to bring people from outside that structure into the system.
see here
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1013/1224305706891.html

Here's something on semi state enterprises
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_bodies_of_the_Republic_of_Ireland

watna

Thanks for that. The work I do here is very specific and is related to the structure, governance and functions of certain organisations within the public service, it doesn't translate easily to work in a private sector organisation, which is the kind of work I'd be looking for. I just wanted some context to see if that made it a bit easier to discuss my main responsibilites. No harm in being well prepared, is there? Plus, as I said I was also curious.

Interesting that the Secretary-General is promoted from within the civil service. Glad to hear that! I was thinking it was a political position, from my reading online of the description of the role.

Thoie

The HSE (Health Service Executive) here is like your health board - comes under the Minister for Health. The National Consumer Agency is another one that springs to mind.

Here's a list of government websites - some of these are commercial, such as CIE and An Post, others are general quangos.

http://www.gov.ie/sites/

watna

Thoie wrote: »

The HSE (Health Service Executive) here is like your health board - comes under the Minister for Health. The National Consumer Agency is another one that springs to mind.

Here's a list of government websites - some of these are commercial, such as CIE and An Post, others are general quangos.

http://www.gov.ie/sites/

Thanks Thoie - the National Consumer Agency sounds like it's a similar kind of thing definitely. Will continue the research

Pete_Cavan

watna wrote: »

Basically, I work as a public servant for the NZ government (which I think in Ireland would be called a Civil Servant). I'm looking for some information on the structure of the Irish civil service as I am moving back to Dublin and want to be able to put the role I do here into context for future employers as it is quite specialist.

If you are talking about taking up a role in the Irish public/civil service, the best thing you can do is search the Public Jobs website and apply for a position which you are qualified for. The public/civil service here wont be creating a new role for you, even if you could save them 100 times your salary every year.

watna wrote: »

Basically, in NZ there are 32 goverment departments/ministries. Each one of these has a Chief Executive that is appointed independently of the government of the day, to ensure political neutrality.

From looking online I can see that there are 15 government departments and each one is headed by a secretary-general who works with the Minister for that department. What I'm wondering is, is that secretary-general appointed by the minister or is it an independent, neutral process?

AKAIK the Secretaries General is appointed by the Top Level Appointments Commission, which is currently undergoing reform.

watna wrote: »

Thanks Thoie - the National Consumer Agency sounds like it's a similar kind of thing definitely. Will continue the research

Just make sure any bodies you are interested in will still be around next year, cyberhog posted a link to a list of quangos which are to be abolished/merged here earlier today.

watna

Thanks for the info but I won't be looking for a civil service job, that's not why I was asking. I know there's a recruitment freeze, even if I did want one. TBH, things are pretty bad here too. Lots of reduncancies and restructure in the public sector and they're almagamating a lot of organisations. Most of the jobs are in Wellington so things are getting pretty hard for people.

The only reason I was asking is that the government department I work in is the one that has responsibility for monitoring etc all the others, and all the other government organisations - so my role relates to the structure of the public service and what I do for each organisation depends on what kind it is.

Thanks for the help