Chris Dooley,
industry and Employment
Correspondent
Applicants for a senior civil service post have been told they must be prepared to work anywhere in the State, a move which has sparked a new row over decentralisation.
In an advertisement for the post of assistant secretary, the Department of Justice said it was "obliged to transfer staff" under the Government's decentralisation programme.
"The person appointed must be willing to accept liability to transfer to any location that may be designated for the Department," it said.
The stipulation has angered senior civil servants, who received the advertisement in internal emails on Friday.
Mr Seán Ó Riordáin, general secretary of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCP), said it suggested a "no Dubliners need apply" policy was being introduced in the public service.
A number of members had contacted the union yesterday to say they could not apply for a job in an unspecified location.
Unions were not consulted about the terms of the advertisement, the first for an assistant secretary since the plan to decentralise 10,000 public servants was announced in the budget.
A Department of Finance spokesman said he could not say if the stipulation would become standard for all civil service vacancies until discussions had taken place with unions.
He also denied that it placed a question mark over the Government's promise that all transfers would be voluntary.
"In the past jobs were advertised in Dublin, and it was open to someone in Tipperary or anywhere else to apply if they wished."
Mr Ó Riordáin said the stipulation would reduce the number of candidates for one of the most important security-related posts in the State.
The successful applicant's responsibilities will include management of the State's prisons.
Some 200 Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform staff are to move to Tipperary under the programme.
Asked why the advertisement had not specified Tipperary as the location for the new post, the spokesman said agencies controlled by the Department were transferring to a number of locations so it might choose to change its management structure.
The higher civil servants association is to hold a special delegate conference on the decentralisation issue at the end of next month.
The post of assistant secretary is one of the most senior in the civil service, and carries a salary ranging from €95,500 to €109,000.