The email after a publicjobs interview says one of two things: you did not reach the standard, or you have been placed on a panel at position such-and-such in order of merit. Both raise questions the booklet answers only in fragments. This guide puts the fragments together: how order of merit and batches work, what a panel is and how long it lasts, how to get your marks, and exactly what the review and complaint routes are, with the deadlines that cannot be extended.
Order of merit, twice
Every large publicjobs competition ranks candidates twice. The first order of merit comes from the Stage 1 tests or assessment questionnaire. The EO 2026 booklet is direct: “The score you achieve at the online testing and assessment stage will determine your Order of Merit, or ranking, against other candidates who applied.” That ranking decides who is invited to interview and in which batch. The second order of merit comes from the interview: candidates who reach the qualifying standard are “placed on a panel, in an order of merit” by interview score, and the test score no longer counts. So the tests get you into the room early; the interview decides where you sit on the list that matters.
Batches
With thousands of candidates, interviews run for months. Candidates are called in batches from the top of the test ranking, each batch is interviewed and scored, and publicjobs describes the approach as demand led: later batches are only called if departments need more people than the panel so far provides. Two rules from the CO 2026 booklet follow from this. Candidates “are placed by order of merit into batches”, and a candidate who reschedules “will be scored with their rescheduled batch where applicable and may not be reinserted into their original batch”. Rescheduling is not free: it can move you from a batch that is being placed to one that may never be called.
The panel
A panel is the list of candidates deemed suitable for appointment, in interview order of merit, from which departments are supplied as vacancies arise. Being on it means you passed. Your position means how likely you are to be reached before it expires. Panel life varies: the HEO 2026 competition “is expected to be active for a two-year period”; the AP interdepartmental circular says appointments are not envisaged after March 2028; CO and EO panels are in practice replaced by the following year’s competition. Assignments are also filtered by the locations you chose at application, so a high position with Dublin only can be reached later than a lower position with any location.
Two things do not happen. publicjobs does not guarantee appointment from a panel, and it does not carry you over to the next competition; you apply again and sit everything again. Clearance (vetting, references, medical where required) happens after you are reached, not before, and an offer is conditional until it is complete.
Getting your marks
The CPSA Code of Practice requires public bodies to have “effective systems” for feedback and to give “clear, specific and meaningful feedback that explains the basis for the decision reached” when a candidate asks. publicjobs’ Review Process page directs you to the recruitment unit named on the front cover of the booklet. Ask in writing, promptly, for your marks under each dimension or competency and any board comments. There is no fixed timeframe for a reply, and publicjobs booklets say so. Whether you receive numeric scores per sub-dimension or a narrative varies by competition; council interviews, by contrast, usually send competency scores and board comments with the result.
Revenue’s CO booklet includes a piece of advice worth following whatever the result: straight after the interview, write down the questions you were asked and a summary of what you said. Feedback makes far more sense against your own notes, and the notes are what you will prepare from next time.
Review and complaint: the two routes
The Code offers two procedures and you may use only one for a given competition. Choose on the basis of what you actually think went wrong.
| Section 7 review | Section 8 complaint | |
|---|---|---|
| Use when | A decision about you was wrong, based on incorrect information, or made without following the documented procedure. | The selection process itself was unfair or breached the Code’s principles (probity, merit, best practice, consistency, transparency, equality). |
| Can it change your result? | Yes. “The decision may be reversed if it is found to have been incorrect.” | No. The CPSA “cannot instruct a public body to reverse a decision”; it can find a breach and make recommendations. |
| Who reviews | Someone independent of the selection process, at publicjobs generally in the CEO’s office. | At publicjobs, generally a member of the Compliance Unit; then on appeal, the CPSA. |
| What the reviewer does | Not re-mark you. Checks that procedures were followed, the decision was made on correct and full information, and was made appropriately. | Examines which standard of the Code is alleged to have been breached and what the body did and should have done. |
| Onward appeal | None. “The reviewer’s decision is final.” | To the CPSA within ten working days of the formal outcome; its decision is final. |
The clock
All deadlines are in working days and, as the booklets repeat, extensions are “only in the most exceptional of circumstances”.
| Step | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Informal review (S7) or informal complaint (S8) to the recruitment unit. Optional but strongly recommended. | 5 working days from notification of the decision |
| Public body answers the informal stage | 5 working days from receipt |
| Formal S7 review request or formal S8 complaint, in writing to the Chief Executive of publicjobs ([email protected] or Chapter House, 26/30 Abbey Street Upper, Dublin 1) | 5 working days from the original decision or from the informal outcome |
| Written acknowledgement | 3 working days |
| Outcome of the formal review or complaint | 25 working days from receipt |
| Appeal to the CPSA (Section 8 only) | 10 working days from the formal outcome |
Three practical points. An informal S7 can only be followed by a formal S7, and an informal S8 by a formal S8; you cannot switch. A review at an interim stage (for example, not being called to interview) must also be lodged within five working days of that decision, not saved for the end. And feedback does not stop the clock: the Garda booklet says receipt of feedback “is not required to invoke a review” and the timeframe “cannot be extended for any reason including the provision of feedback”. If in doubt, lodge the informal request on day one and ask for your marks in the same email.
What a review can and cannot do for you
A formal Section 7 reviewer establishes whether the process was followed and the decision made on full and correct information. It is not a second interview and it will not substitute the reviewer’s opinion of your answers for the board’s. Reviews succeed when there is something concrete: a scoring error, an eligibility decision made on the wrong document, a stage of the documented procedure that did not happen. “I felt the board was cold” is a matter for feedback, not review. The Code also says a request may be refused if you cannot support it, so say precisely what you think was wrong and why. A word of caution from the publicjobs side: canvassing disqualifies, and the Unreasonable Conduct Policy applies to correspondence.
The stage you control is the interview. The competency questions guide and the Capability Framework guide cover how it is marked; the grade guides cover what each board expects.