Better Public Services article: The Civil Service Capability Framework
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From: Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation
- Published on: 24 October 2025
- Last updated on: 19 January 2026
PublicJobs has a vision for an innovative, agile and professional Civil Service that improves the lives of the People of Ireland. To achieve this it is necessary to ensure that our workforce has the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform effectively and deliver excellence now and in the future. PublicJobs (formerly the Public Appointments Service) committed to review and update the Civil Service Competency model to reflect current and anticipated knowledge, skills and behaviour needs, for all roles from Clerical Officer to Principal Officer.
The project was led by an expert Steering Group and the analysis and development was done by Work and Organisational Psychologists from the Assessment Services Unit in PublicJobs.
The Capability framework, developed by PublicJobs and launched in February 2024 has been rolled out across all Civil Service Large Volume campaigns . The new framework was developed with four Capabilities and a number of subdimensions under each. The Framework goes beyond just competencies to explore the strengths, skills, interests and motivations of individuals. It facilitates the exploration of “potential” as part of the recruitment process, and allows for the “matching” of candidates to roles. A pilot is underway on the current Principal Officer competition using this approach.
A range of supports were developed to assist departments and agencies in its use for their own recruitment and promotions, including a client toolkit, training slides, draft interview and scoring templates and access to a bespoke eLearning module.
The new Capability Framework provides the Civil Service with an innovative recruitment model which reflects the skills required for a high performing, future focused Civil Service.
PublicJobs Civil Service Competency model was the winner in the Category of Workforce of the Future in the 2025 Civil Service Excellence Awards. Visit the PublicJobs website to see more from the winning team on their project.