New 2021 Assistant Principal in the Civil Service

Latest word from PAS (received at 2pm today) is that there have been 19 candidates called for clearance so far in Batch 3 on the AP panel.

I assume that is both open and inter-d, because I am number 10 in batch 3 and have not heard anything yet.

Results are out now for Batch 4 (the last round of interviews 2/3 weeks ago)

Do you mind if I ask when you got your Batch 3 results please? Trying to work out how long I may have to wait on the Batch 4 if they get that far.

Same here for Batch 4 which was 2 weeks after interview.

Did well in interview part but not so in one of the SAE competencies. Serves me right for throwing it together the night before it was due for the sake of it!

Got Results today from batch of interviews held on 12/14/15/16 sept.

I made it through so onto the Dublin panel I go. Sorry to those that didn’t pass, keep the faith & try again.

I’d be moving from the private sector so not fully sure how exactly this works now & would be grateful of any guidance.

Can I ask PAS how many on the panel ahead of my one or are we slotted into the existing panel based on our score.

With 10 months to go until the July 2023 deadline, can any more experienced people hazard a guess on the chance of getting an offer ?

We got our results on the 6th of Sept

Thanks for that!

Unfortunately, I didn't make it this time, but first time through to the final stage, so it was a learning curve.

Congratulations to those who got through and best of luck in your new departments.

From an earlier post it was 7 from InterD and 14 from Open so from that I'd surmise its 19 from the Open

Might be of interest to some on this thread who are current civil servants:

On the 'Civil Service - Post Lockdown - Blended Working' thread ( https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119611314#Comment_119611314 ) we've been looking at what's on offer in different departments/employers around blended working. I ran a survey on this back in June, which is now outdated as departments began releasing official blended working policies. There's a new survey available now, from here: https://forms.gle/55tQJ3FcP68Zn2KA7

No personal info is collected, don't include any identifying info in answers, please. The last question is free-form text and I'll post up some of the interesting responses on the above thread unless asked not to. Or if they're defamatory. 🤣



So this was not my experience at all in the 2020 competition. If you are external and do not choose Dublin, chances are very limited imo.

I was placed very high on the open panels for my two regions. The panels expired before I was appointed after all my hard work and I did really really well in the interview. If that was the luck of the draw, fine, but on further investigation I discovered how weighted in favour of inter-departmental it can be.

In one region it was 70% inter-d appointments and only 30% from the Open so I was at number 1 when it expired. That's a very slim chance and nothing like this is informed in the information booklet - at least local authorities are clear on their internal bias.

Infuriatingly I was top 4 (4th) in my other region but they appointed 5 positions all off the inter-departmental panel. They appointed zero off the open so i had no chance. After all the work this was a bitter pill to swallow.

I complained to PAS who basically said it's down to the Department's or as they call them "Client's" requests. So basically if Departments request off the inter-d panels then that's that. No one monitors this either. Now one can say that perhaps they prefer people who know the CS but I see it more as not wanting external skills and different views coming in - in some Departments - I know some are very progressive but some are not. I'm speaking from knowledge from family and best friends on that point.

Really unsure if I'd bother moving ahead at this stage as I haven't been called for my regions yet and it'd likely be the same thing all over again. I think it's a sad state of affairs in 2022 when regional Departments can be that biased to interdepartmental appointees. Worse than that though is the lack of clarity about panels, ratios of appointments etc in the information booklet for the Open candidates. If you tell me it's 70/30 and I still choose to apply then fine. But to allow people believe they have an equal chance is plainly wrong.

That is absolutely infuriating all right, and you have my sympathies. The 1:1:1 ratio is what is supposed to be applied for the AP grade, and IIRC that's as a result of agreements with unions.

I did find this, where it was raised in the Dáil: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2018-10-25/122/ so apparently it is measured by DPER, and may well be worth raising with DPER to find out why procedures weren't followed and what recourse you have.

Hi,

I emailed PAS clearance email. They will advise on how many are ahead of you and what numbers they are working on for the clearance process at the moment. So for anyone that is curious about placing, you should get plenty of information.

Thanks

Batch 4 oom 40's Open, Dublin. . Hope to get called at some point 🤞