Concern has been expressed about the high turnover of staff at the Central Bank after it emerged there are currently 133 outstanding job vacancies at the bank.

In response to a Dáil question from Fianna Fáil's finance spokesman Michael McGrath, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan confirmed the majority of the vacancies - 72 of the 133 - were in the regulation area.

According to the Minister, 50 offers have been made for these vacancies and 27 have so far been accepted by candidates.

“I have been informed by the Central Bank that it operates to a recruitment target of 10 weeks from the time a vacancy arises until a candidate is offered a job. On average this process takes 7.4 weeks,” Mr Noonan said.

Mr McGrath has expressed concern at the high rate of staff turnover at the bank

“At a time when there is a need for a robust system of Central Bank supervision of the economy and strong regulation of the financial sector, it is very worrying to have 133 positions unfilled in the Central Bank.”

“The Minister for Finance needs to be pro-active and establish the reason why the Central Bank is finding it so difficult to fill these key positions.”

“In addition to these vacancies, the Central Bank and other specialist State agencies such as Nama seem to have a high turnover of staff at a senior level. This could potentially have a negative impact on the quality of work such bodies do for the country,” he said.