§ Mr. McDonnellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to include Irish as a category in his Department's ethnic monitoring of staff recruitment. [63872]
§ Mr. Tony LloydThe overriding principle of Civil Service recruitment procedures is that they should be fair, and selection should be on merit at each stage.
Monitoring in this area is based on ethnic origin, and not nationality. The nine ethnic origin categories monitored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are those used in the 1991 census, which did not include an Irish category. They will be reviewed in the light of any suggested changes for the 2001 Population Census.