‘Civil Service Exit Scheme leaves services void of experience’ – McNulty

SDLP Assembly Member for Newry and Armagh Justin McNulty has claimed the Executive’s Voluntary Exit Scheme has left many public services void of experience and resources to run essential public services.

McNulty was speaking as it was revealed Stormont has hired almost 1,000 agency staff to cover gaps in staffing structures with Government departments locally.

Speaking to Newry Times, McNulty said, “As a public representative I get deeply frustrated when it takes so long to get answers to queries or even when trying to get to speak to the official responsible for a particular issue.

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“In particular I have found that many experienced staff have left a range of government departments under the Executive’s Voluntary Exit Scheme. The impact is very serious, just take Roads Service / Transport NI, the technical and design teams have been seriously depleted and this is impacting on the number of road safety and improvement schemes being delivered.

“I have asked Roads Minister Chris Hazzard to detail the impact locally. The staff remaining are under severe pressure and are at their wits end.

“We have now learned that many of the gaps are now being filled with agency staff, some of which are those who left the service only weeks previously under the Voluntary Exit Scheme.

“Services are being impacted, millions have been spent on redundancy pay-outs only for many of the staff to be brought back as agency staff.

He added, “There are huge gaps in services, especially on technical and the administration side, and the consequences are serious. Stormont needs to get to grips with just what is going on. This cannot continue.”

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Posted by Newry Times News on Feb 15 2017. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry