Despite the stuffy image of the civil service, the lure of salaries up to 72,000 a year and a guaranteed pension prompted more than 4,000 people to apply for just nine middle management jobs in government departments by last Wednesday, the closing date for applications.

The flood of applications is certain to be used as a bargaining chip against public sector union demands for large pay increases under benchmarking. In the past, the government has justified 'special' pay rises to civil servants on the grounds that higher wages and bonuses in the private sector made it hard to attract high-calibre workers into the civil service.

The jobs were first advertised last December, with candidates being warned that they might have to move out of Dublin under the decentralisation plans spearheaded by OPW minister Tom Parlon.

But the Public Appointments Commission was still inundated with around 500 applications a week.

The commission advertised six higher executive officer posts at a maximum salary of 51,000 and three assistant principal positions at a top salary of over 72,000.

These top-level government jobs were closed to people outside the 30,000-strong civil service until a groundbreaking deal with the public sector unions allowed the government to recruit from outside, though only to fill higher-level vacancies where the person had resigned or left to work in the private sector.

Since the deal was done with the unions three years ago, just 17 middle and senior managers have left the security of the civil service for the more exposed private sector. Seven of those vacancies were filled by open competition in late 2003 and nine were advertised last month.

The Department of Finance, which has been pushing open recruitment to expand the pool of talent available to the government, said it will advertise for one principal officer early this year as part of the deal.

Principal officers are paid over 100,000 a year and the Public Appointments Commission is bracing itself for a flood of applications.