The public service of Ireland refers to the entirety of public administration within the state government apparatus. The Irish Department of Public Expenditure and Reform defines the Irish public service as consisting of:
Two-thirds of the public service is in the health and education sectors.
Civil service
The Civil Service of Ireland is the collective term for the permanent staff of the departments of state and certain state agencies who advise and work for the Government of Ireland. It consists of two broad components, the Civil Service of the Government and the Civil Service of the State. Whilst these two components are largely theoretical they do have some fundamental operational differences.
The Civil Service of the Government advises and carries out the work of the Government, through the various Departments of State, of which there are fifteen; one for each Minister of the Government. Each department is led by a senior civil servant known as the Secretary General, a title equivalent to that of Permanent Secretary in the British Civil Service. The most senior civil servant and head of the civil service is the Secretary General to the Government, currently Martin Fraser. The Secretary General to the Government is a dual-hatted position as they also head up the Department of the Taoiseach, a government department analogous to a cabinet office in other countries.
The defence sector refers to the total number of personnel of the Irish Defence Forces, which consists of the Irish Army, Naval Service and Air Corps. Personnel numbers for each of the three services is as follows:
Irish Army: 7,821
Naval Service: 1,084
Air Corps: 748
State spending on defence totalled €895 million for 2016.
Education sector
The education sector represents the second largest sector of the Irish public service, with 96,432 employees working in primary, post-primary and third level institutes. A break-down of numbers is as follows:
Public spending in 2016 on education totalled just over €8.3 billion.
Health sector
The health sector in Ireland makes up the largest part of the Irish public service, with a total staff of 105,885. Health makes up 35% of the total number of workers in the national public service. The Health Service Executive is the largest component of Ireland's health sector, with 67,145 employed as part of it.
Health Service Executive: 67,145
Voluntary Agencies : 14,914
Voluntary Hospitals: 23,825
Spending in the health sector totalled just over €13.6 billion in 2016.
Justice sector
The justice sector refers to policing in Ireland, specifically the Garda Síochána, which has a workforce, not counting civilian staff of 13,261. Spending on policing amounted to €1.4 billion in 2016.
Local Authorities
Local government in Ireland is undertaken by 31 local authorities, each one corresponding to a city or county. Employees of local authorities are considered to be part of the Irish public service, with funding for local government provided mainly by central government, as well the local property tax. There are approximately 27,188 employed for the 31 local authorities across Ireland, with Dublin City Council with the largest employee count of all the councils with 5,330 staff.
Non-commercial state agencies
Non-commercial state agencies, or government agencies are autonomously run state agencies assigned with a specific task, and typically free to carry out their responsibilities free of government or ministerial interference. State agencies are, for the most part, established through legislation by the Dail and overseen by the relevant committee of the Oireachtas. Examples of such state agencies include the Arts Council, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Health Information and Quality Authority, Higher Education Authority and Transport Infrastructure Ireland In 2016 there were 12,616 employed in various Non-commercial state agencies, with the largest by employee being the Child and Family Agency with 3,554 staff.
