Assistant Staff Officer

The Assistant Staff Officer is the first level in the middle-management structure of the Local Authority and will provide support to and report to staff at Staff Officer grade, or analogous, and above. They may be responsible for the day-to-day supervision of staff at Clerical Officer grade, or analogous.

They will work as part of a multidisciplinary team within the Council, assisting with the implementation of work programmes to achieve goals, targets and standards set out in Departmental and Team Development Plans. Assistant Staff Officers will be required to operate the Council’s existing and future Financial and Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems as part of their work.

The role requires excellent administrative, employee supervisory, interpersonal, and communication skills with capacity to use personal initiative. Other skills and expertise may also be required depending on assignment.

Wexford County Council offers a diverse range of opportunities at Assistant Staff Officer level across all departments within the organization.

The Assistant Staff Officer plays an important part in supporting middle-management in a department, ensuring the effective delivery of services across a wide range of council activities.

This is a dynamic position that will generally be the first point of call for elevated and more complex customer service issues, and the ideal candidate will need to combine operational leadership, customer service, team management, and high-quality administrative delivery.

Panel Formation

Recruitment arrangements to this grade will now be on the following basis:

The Council will form three separate panels of suitably qualified candidates to meet the requirements agreed nationally of the ratio of posts to be confined to the local authority sector, open and those confined to Wexford County Council staff. The order of candidates placed on each of the three panels is determined by where they were placed on the overall Order of Merit List.

Panel A (Confined to the Local Authority Sector) will comprise successful applicants in order of merit from within the Local Authority Sector only, i.e. candidates serving in a Local Authority or Regional Assembly (where applicable).

Panel B (Open) will comprise all successful applicants in order of merit and may include candidates serving in a Local Authority, Regional Assembly and external applicants.

Panel C (Confined to employees of Wexford County Council) will comprise all successful applicants in order of merit from within Wexford County Council.

For the purposes of the above, the sector Panel A is understood to include all Local Authorities and the three Regional Assemblies (where applicable) only. Staff who are not existing employees of Local Authorities or Regional Assemblies are not eligible to apply for competitions confined to the sector (Panel A) or to the Local Authority (Panel C).

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE POSTCHARACTER

Candidates shall be of good character and references shall be sought.

HEALTH

Each candidate must be in a state of health such as would indicate a reasonable prospect of ability to render an efficient service.

EDUCATION, TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE

Each candidate must, on the latest date for receipt of completed application forms:

Applicants for Panel B (Open)

(i)

(a) Have obtained at least Grade D (or a Pass), in Higher or Ordinary Level, in five subjects (or four if Irish is included) from the approved list of subjects in the Department of Education Established Leaving Certificate Examination or Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme including Irish and/or English and one of the following:

• Mathematics
• Accounting
• Business Organisation
• Economics

and

(b) Have obtained at least Grade C (or Honours) in Higher Level (or Honours Papers) in three subjects in that examination (or two subjects if Irish and/or one of the following is included: Mathematics, Accounting, Business or Economics),

or

(ii) Have obtained a comparable standard in an equivalent examination,

or

(iii) Hold a third level qualification of at least degree standard.

Confined Competition (Panels A and C as appropriate)

(i)

(a) Be a serving employee of a Local Authority or a Regional Assembly, and have not less than two years satisfactory experience in a post of Clerical Officer or analogous post.

Applicants must upload proof they hold at least one of the qualifications specified in criteria (i), (ii) or (iii) above to the online recruitment portal, or they will not be considered for Panel B.

Non-Irish qualifications must be accompanied by a determination from Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) to establish their comparability against the Irish National Framework of Qualifications.

Overseas qualifications must be accompanied by a certified translation document, where appropriate.

CITIZENSHIP

Candidates must, by the date of any job offer, be:

(a) A citizen of the European Economic Area (EEA). The EEA consists of the Member States of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway; or

(b) A citizen of the United Kingdom (UK); or

(c) A citizen of Switzerland pursuant to the agreement between the EU and Switzerland on the free movement of persons; or

(d) A non-EEA citizen who is a spouse or child of an EEA, UK or Swiss citizen and has a Stamp 4 visa; or

(e) A person awarded international protection under the International Protection Act 2015, or any family member entitled to remain in the State as a result of family reunification, and has a Stamp 4 visa; or

(f) A non-EEA citizen who is a parent of a dependent child who is a citizen of, and resident in, an EEA member state, the UK or Switzerland, and has a Stamp 4 visa.

THE PERSON

The person appointed will be able to clearly demonstrate the key competencies as set out in this booklet. In addition, the successful candidate will possess the following:

• A clear understanding of Local Government services in order to achieve effective service delivery.
• Knowledge of current Local Government issues and key policies guiding the Local Government sector.
• A clear understanding of the role of Assistant Staff Officer.
• Understand the changing environment and be capable of adapting to change in order to deliver quality services to citizens.
• Ability to identify problems and contribute to solutions.
• Ability to work effectively within a team to achieve a common goal, ensuring standards are adhered to and maintained.
• Ability to provide excellent customer service.
• Ability to lead a team.
• Good interpersonal and communication skills.
• Motivation to achieve maximum performance.
• Excellent clerical and administrative experience in an office-based environment.
• Ability to work on own initiative, in an independent environment and without constant supervision.

DUTIES OF THE POST

The duties of the post shall be to give to the Local Authority, under the direction and supervision of its appropriate employee, such services of an executive, supervisory and advisory nature as are required for the exercise and performance of any of its powers and duties. These shall include the duty of deputising for other employees of the Local Authority when required, and such duties as may be required in relation to the area of any other Local Authority, and may include the following:

• Providing administrative backup and support for their supervisor/line manager to achieve key goals, objectives and tasks.
• Supervising staff and deputising for their supervisor/line manager as required.
• Operating under the direction of their supervisor/line manager.
• Participating as an effective team member towards the efficient operation of their department/section.
• Collating and analysing information/data and reporting on same.
• Maintaining accurate records and files.
• Assisting with budget management, reporting and procurement.
• Ensuring the provision of high-quality customer services.
• Briefing and training new staff.
• Implementing agreed procedures, schemes and policies of the Council.
• Servicing and attending meetings of the Council and its committees as required.
• Operating existing and future IT systems.
• Taking initiative and being proactive in addressing issues.
• Assisting with the implementation of change and delivering quality services.
• Managing the performance of a section or function within a department.
• Working effectively with staff, members of the public, public representatives, external agencies and various Council departments.

SELECTION PROCESS

Applications will only be accepted via the online recruitment portal, which can be accessed at careers.wexfordcoco.ie. CVs, printed hard copy or emailed applications will not be accepted.

All sections of the application form, including uploads of supporting documents, must be completed in order for a submission to be valid.

Applications will not be accepted after the specified closing date.

The selection process may include any or all of the following:

• The number of persons seeking admission to a competition generally exceeds that required to fill the available posts and, while candidates may meet eligibility, it is not practical to interview everyone. In those cases, the Local Authority may employ a shortlisting procedure. The number of candidates to be invited for interview shall be determined by the Local Authority. The shortlisting will be carried out by or on behalf of the Local Authority against criteria specified in this document and only on the basis of the information contained in the candidate's application form.
• Completion of an online questionnaire or any other tests or exercises deemed appropriate by the Local Authority.
• A competitive preliminary and/or final interview, conducted by or on behalf of the Local Authority. This may include interviews being held remotely.
• The Local Authority may create a panel from which future vacancies at the specified grade may be filled.

Shortlisting

While a candidate may meet the eligibility requirements of the competition, where the volume of applications received makes it impractical to interview all eligible candidates, Wexford County Council reserves the right to determine the number of candidates to be shortlisted for interview.

Applications will be assessed against pre-determined criteria based on the requirements of the position. This does not imply that other applicants are unsuitable or incapable of performing the role; rather, it reflects that some candidates, based on their application, demonstrate qualifications and/or experience that are more closely aligned with the post.

Applicants are therefore strongly encouraged to provide clear, detailed and accurate information in relation to their qualifications, experience and recent relevant examples demonstrating their competencies.

Note: As part of the shortlisting process, achieving 50% in each competency will not guarantee that a candidate is called for interview. Due to the number of applicants, only a proportion of those achieving 50% in each competency may be called for interview, based on the mark awarded in the shortlisting process. Further qualified candidates may be called at a later stage at the discretion of Wexford County Council.

CONDITIONS OF SERVICETenure

The post, whether temporary or permanent, is whole-time and pensionable.

Persons who become pensionable employees of a Local Authority who are liable to pay the Class A rate of PRSI contribution will be required, in respect of their superannuation, to contribute to the Local Authority at the rate of:

• 1.5% of their pensionable remuneration, plus
• 3.5% of net pensionable remuneration (i.e. pensionable remuneration less twice the annual rate of Social Insurance Old Age Contributory Pension payable at the maximum rate to a person with no adult dependent or qualified children).

All persons who become pensionable employees of a Local Authority will also be required, in respect of the Local Government (Spouses and Children’s Contributory Pension) Scheme, to contribute to the Local Authority at the rate of 1.5% of their net pensionable remuneration in accordance with the terms of the Scheme.

For new entrants under the Single Public Service Pension Scheme effective from 1 January 2013, superannuation contributions are:

• 3.5% of net pensionable remuneration.
• 3% of pensionable remuneration.

Probation

Where a person who is not already a permanent officer of a Local Authority is appointed, the following provisions shall apply:

• There shall be a probationary period after appointment takes effect.
• The probationary period shall be six months, but the Chief Executive may, at their discretion, extend such period.
• The person shall cease to hold such employment at the end of the probationary period unless, during that period, the Chief Executive has certified that the person's service is satisfactory.

Salary

The salary shall be fully inclusive and shall be as determined from time to time.

Holders of the post shall pay to the Local Authority any fees or other monies (other than their inclusive salary) payable to or received by them by virtue of their employment or in respect of services which they are required by or under any enactment to perform.

An allowance may also be payable in respect of travel expenses and subsistence.

Salary:€36,474 – €56,015 (2nd LSI)(at 1 June 2026).