SEANAD REPORT:SENIOR CIVIL servants were apparently taking decisions that were undermining Government policy on public sector reform, Joe O'Toole (Ind) said.

There was supposed to be a moratorium on jobs and a review of the local authorities and other areas, yet senior-level jobs were being advertised week after week.

Why, he wondered, was there a lack of political traction on the issue of public sector reform.

“The key issue in public sector reform at a senior level is that there be flexibility and that people can be moved from one place to another. If we start filling jobs now, that process becomes more and more difficult.”

Jerry Buttimer (FG) said despite the supposed freeze on recruitment, a “litany” of jobs had been advertised. How was it that top-end positions were on offer at a time when the public was being deprived of services?

Ciarán Cannon (FG) said he been apprised of a worrying example of the consequences of inflexibility in the public service. A plastic surgery day clinic had to be suspended in a Galway hospital because the surgeon could not find a clerk to write 24 letters a month to maintain the service. There were 813 corporate staff employed by HSE West, and it should be possible to redeploy one of them.

Terry Leyden (FF) asked that Eugene Regan (FG) be afforded an opportunity to make a statement in relation to a story in The Irish Times “regarding a letter that the Senator sent on behalf of Paddy McKillen, the developer, to the European Commission in relation to the Nama situation”.

Noting that there had been discussion in the House of the importance of “the national interest”, Jim Walsh (FF) asked if Mr Regan would clarify the motivation behind his letter to the commission. Maurice Cummins (FG) asked if the matter concerned an ongoing court case. If that was so, he did not think it was appropriate “to discuss it here”.