asked the Minister for Labour the number of placement officers in the National Manpower Service recently recruited and if he is fully satisfied that any new arrangements in the method of recruitment are in the best interest of this important service.

The number of placement officers to be appointed from the special competition which I referred to in reply to a question on 30 November 1978, is at least 30, and 24 of the successful candidates have already taken up employment.

I am satisfied that the recruitment method used will not in any way diminish the effectiveness of the National Manpower Service.

If I am right in assuming that the change in procedure for the employment of placement officers is essentially that the special competition to which the Minister referred is now an internal competition, is it not reasonable that the expertise and the knowledge which people outside the establishment of his Department could bring to the jobs, if appointed, could be of assistance? In other words, why is it now a closed competition?

The number of posts filled by way of open competition held in mid-1978 was about 33, which was the biggest intake in any year since the establishment of the service. It was found that more assistance of a temporary nature was needed for the various schemes. Because of that it was felt more appropriate to recruit extra people, over and above the number I referred to, from a confined competition within the Departments.

Am I right in saying that the positions exclusively from within the Department are of a temporary nature?

They are for a number of years, depending on the outcome at the end of that time.

In view of the unemployment situation, I do not understand why it was necessary to confine the competition, even for temporary jobs, within the Department when there are people with obvious ability who would be delighted to compete for one of these jobs.

It was not limited to my Department.

To the public service.

Yes. The second reason for confining it was that it was a quicker exercise to get people in that way when extra placement officers were needed.