§ Mr. McDonnellTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to include Irish as a category in his Department's ethnic monitoring of staff recruitment. [63883]
§ Mr. MorleyThe over-riding principle of Civil Service recruitment procedures is that they should be fair and selection should be on merit at each stage.
119WMonitoring in this area is based on ethnic origin and not nationality. The ethnic origin categories monitored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 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.