{"id":420768,"date":"2026-04-27T23:53:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/420768\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T23:53:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T23:53:18","slug":"fees-paid-to-interview-panellists-for-public-sector-jobs-top-e2m-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/420768\/","title":{"rendered":"Fees paid to interview panellists for public-sector jobs top \u20ac2m \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Fees paid to people sitting on interview and assessment panels for public-sector jobs topped \u20ac2 million in the space of a year, with two individuals earning more than \u20ac40,000 each for their work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Figures from the publicjobs service detail how \u20ac1.32 million of the total was shared among retired civil or public-sector staff in 2024. A further \u20ac544,000 was paid to people from the private sector while semi-State employees, mostly retired, shared a total of \u20ac160,000 in fees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">There was also a small total of \u20ac13,700 for retired academics, people from the charity sector, public servants from different countries and other miscellaneous individuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The overall spend in 2024 was \u20ac2.035 million, which covered interviews, shortlisting and other assessment exercises, including the 15,803 interviews carried out that year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Two people earned more than \u20ac40,000 for their work on interview panels, according to figures released under freedom-of-information laws. One retired civil or public servant received \u20ac43,365 while a retired semi-State employee was paid \u20ac42,525 in fees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">There were four others who earned fees of between \u20ac30,000 and \u20ac40,000, two from the private sector, one retired public servant and one retired semi-State worker. Eleven others earned between \u20ac20,000 and \u20ac30,000 \u2013 many of them ex-public sector staff.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image audio_image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1754647931518-c07d65db-55b5-463e-ae51-976300c5837e.jpeg\"\/>Kerry Group CEO on the impact of Middle East conflict, AI and drive to keep bread fresher for longer<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The publicjobs figures showed that 50 people received in excess of \u20ac12,350 in fees for their work sitting on interview panels in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Internal records show payments are made on a daily-rate basis with fees varying depending on seniority and expertise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The rates can range from about \u20ac130 at the lowest end of the scale up to \u20ac469 per day for management consultants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Asked about the expenditure, the publicjobs service said it was committed to best practice at all stages of the recruitment, assessment and selection process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A spokesperson said: \u201cWe utilise a panel of suitably experienced and trained board members to assess, evaluate and select candidates for the wide range of positions for which we recruit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Board members can include current civil and public servants, individuals from the private and semi-State sectors, and retired civil and public servants and trade union officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cFees paid to board members for services provided are based on agreed and sanctioned rates, in accordance with their expertise and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The spokesperson added that they worked to minimise the cost of recruitment competitions at all times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fees paid to people sitting on interview and assessment panels for public-sector jobs topped \u20ac2 million in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,1962],"class_list":["post-420768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}