2024 Assistant Principal in Civil Service

For anyone interested, the Civil Service Mobility map is showing over 1,700 AP roles in Dublin, not sure how up to date the map is but it can be refreshed so hopefully it is near real time. There seem to be more jobs on Public Jobs recently too. Hopefully there will be good movement with the new government in place.

The civil service paygrades are set . You can easily google what they are. There is no negotiation if you are coming in from another sector. IF you are a current CS you might not start on the starting point depending on what point you are on in your current grade.

You are 100% right about there being no scope for negotiation. And I doubt this person "negotiated" as suggested. If promoted within civil/public service, then you go to the nearest point on the scale. If the difference between your current salary and the nearest point on the scale is less than the difference between that point on the scale and the next, then you go to the next. This is all outlined in circulars, so it is not "negotiated".

There is zero scope for negotiations. The section I work in have had loads of EOs ready to start and then drop out due to salery. The only thing I can suggest to to look at the entire package if you can afford the salary. Great chance for progression, holidays, pension, flexi time, free courses etc.

Is there anyone working as an AP in Galway? I'm wondering how long the process took and where you were on the OOM before and after the interview.

They contacted me to see if I was interested in an interview for the EO position in Revenue. They stated that declining now would keep me in consideration for future roles. I considered going but was too busy and exhausted, and the salary was lower than my current one. If the salary had been higher, I would have gone for it. However, if I had accepted and then declined the offer, I would have been removed from the competition. In hindsight, I should have tried to negotiate just to see.

Actually I do have it, however the experience is not from Ireland. So technically I guess it doesn't count.

That’s great! My experience was from many years ago when I was the youngest on the team, so I guess finding all the details would take me ages. But it's good to know it could possibly count toward the pay scale, etc.

Since I didn't express interest in the EO interview for revenue but still remain in the competition, I'm now wondering if they might contact me again for a future position.

However fingers crossed for a call for the AP interview. It's so frustrating the number of vacancies in Galway.

This was my first time applying for both EO and AP, and I was surprised to be invited for the EO interview. My goal now is to secure a position there—though HEO would be an even better fit for me financially then EO.

Are you already working there? If so, where did you apply? Galway is the most convenient option for me due to my current location.

don't think any shortlisting has been published yet.

I left the public service to take up a clerical officer role in the civil service in 2021. I had two years TCO experience from my college days. My prior experience as a TCO and in the public service was recognised and I got bumped up the CO payscale. I was promoted internally to EO in 2022, and I got HEO internally in 2024. As someone who was never great at psychometric tests, I found the internal route a lot easier. Only a handful of open AP vacancies were offered in Cork, Galway and Limerick. You are far better taking EO in Galway, and then trying for promotion internally or interdepartmentally to HEO or AP. You just have so many more options along with mobility.

Yeah I was thinking to go trough that route. At least HEO since would be a bit closer to my actual salary.

My OOM is around 200 in Dublin and haven't heard anything yet. Would also be interested to know if anyone ahead of me has heard anything.

Thanks for those replies! 😊 I doubt there will be movement on any of the Regional panels any time soon. Due to usual high demand in Dublin, I would expect to see a lot of candidate's called forward for Dublin before they look towards other locations.

Thanks for the update Ciaran1239, thankfully I'm just inside the cut off point for both open and InterD.

Hopefully we will hear something soon!

Just wondering if anyone knows, do you get two chances if you are on both inter and open comp? Like could you be successful on both or successful on one but not the other?