More than 60 vacancies at council as recruitment difficulty continues

Westmeath County Council has revealed that staff are leaving its employment at almost the same rate as it is recruiting newcomers.

“We have – and we are continuing – to take on a large number of staff, but the difficulty is that people are moving out of the organisation at almost the same rate,” chief executive Barry Kehoe said at the council’s monthly meeting, in response to a query from Cllr John Dolan, who asked how many vacancies there were on the council and how many had been filled since the last meeting.

Figures provided to members in the monthly management report revealed that, at present, 584 staff are employed by the council, filling a whole-time equivalent of 530.3 posts.

Mr Kehoe said that as a result of the outward flow of workers, net staff numbers employed had increased by only around 10 in the last 12 months, despite the level of recruitment undertaken.

“We probably have in or around 50 to 60 live vacancies as we speak. It’s down maybe 10 on what it was three or four months ago, and we’re continuing to recruit. But it’s swimming against the tide and it’s difficult to make progress in that environment,” Mr Kehoe stated.

Director of services, Jackie Finney, stated that were 64 vacancies within the council at the time of speaking. She added that since the beginning of January, 59 people had joined the organisation, but a good number of people had moved, been promoted or retired.

“But we’re also bringing [replacements] in as quickly as we can,” she said, adding that there are challenges with recruitment, especially of technical staff.

“But in fairness, I think in recent months there’s been a slight increase in them coming in quicker than leaving so we’re beginning to tip the balance a little bit, which is positive.”