Middle-ranking diplomats are expected to be allowed apply for posts elsewhere in the Civil Service in a move that would ease the severe promotional blockage at Iveagh House, it has emerged.
The Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Padraic MacKernan, told the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday the staff union within the Department had agreed to this. If implemented, promotions to principal officer level (equivalent to the diplomatic rank of counsellor) would be subject to the "one in three" Civil Service wide competition that applies elsewhere.
This system means one vacancy out of three at this level in each department is open to applicants from outside that department. The other two-thirds are filled from within the department.
This means diplomats stuck at the rank of first secretary for many years could apply for promotional posts outside the department for the first time.
Conversely, assistant principal officers could apply for counsellor posts in the department.
Meanwhile, following the recent difficulty in Foreign Affairs over promotions, Mr MacKernan confirmed the Government was considering placing top-level diplomatic appointments in the hands of the body that appoints top officials in other departments, thus reducing ministerial influence over Foreign Affairs promotions.
The Government has agreed in principle that the Top-Level Appointments Commission (TLAC) system, used in most of the Civil Service, should be applied to Foreign Affairs, he said. This covers promotion to secretary general and assistant secretary, the rank of almost all ambassadors abroad.
The details had yet to be worked out, Padraic Mr MacKernan told the committee yesterday. But "recent events have brought about a situation in which we are actively engaging in seeing how a TLAC-type situation can be set up in the Department of Foreign Affairs".
Mr MacKernan was answering questions following the difficulties over the decision of the Minister, Mr Andrews, to intervene personally to make three promotions. The Departments of Foreign Affairs, Finance and the Taoiseach have been exempt from the TLAC system, and the Minister makes promotions to the post of assistant secretary and secretary general.
But under TLAC an interview panel, consisting of top officials drawn from the wider Civil Service as well as an outside figure, makes a recommendation to the Minister for Finance (as the minister responsible for the public service) on appointments to such top posts. While the Minister can reject their recommendation, none has done so.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is likely to have a modified version of the TLAC system, Mr MacKernan said. The current TLAC promotion system was based on interviews, and "whet her this is the best way to select people is debatable". It might be necessary and more likely that a mixed system involving performance-related appraisals as well as interviews would be introduced. This was a management point yet to be worked out.