Had their numbers and pay cut as part of the National Recovery Plan for Ireland 2011 – 2014. http://www.budget.gov.ie/The National Recovery Plan 2011-2014.pdf. This was achieved ahead of target. By any standard that was an achievement, but this being Ireland, we've let things slip.
But is the number of civil servants a cause for concern? There are now over 330,000 public servants and the pay bill is EUR 18.7 billion. https://www.gov.ie/en/policy-inform...e-pay-policy/?referrer=/en/public-sector-pay/. That is to say, we now employ over 10,000 more public servants than we did in in the Year of the Crash, i.e. 2008 and spend EUR 5 billion more on their pay than we did in 2008. But the number of civil servants, i.e. 39 thousand, is about the same today as it was in 2008. http://databank.per.gov.ie/Databank.aspx. (And they had their pay reduced.) So it's the sustainability of numbers and pay in the wider public service should be a primary concern, not necessarily the “office requirements” of the civil service.