A DRUGS research body was left without a single member of staff responsible for carrying out research, because of a freeze on recruitment in the public sector.

The anomaly arose when the National Advisory Committee on Drugs found itself without a researcher after the previous employee in that position left their post.

No replacement could be hired even though one of the drug committee's express purposes was to provide research and advice to the government.

The Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs was then forced to make a special application to the Department of Finance, to ask for a special exemption from the freeze.

After several weeks of negotiations, the department agreed that a researcher could be hired and the loophole bypassed.

Following enquiries from the Sunday Tribune, the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs confirmed that a resolution had now finally been reached.

A spokeswoman said: "The matter is being resolved and it is hoped to advertise the post shortly."

Certain organisations under the aegis of the department are not exempt from the recruitment freeze. Late last year, Foras na Gaeilge was allowed to hire 16 new staff to work on an Irish language dictionary and textbooks.

The €800,000 worth of appointments were approved by the same department, who said they were existing jobs and that the jobs ban did not apply to North-South bodies.

Late last year, the National Consumer Agency – which the government has been trying to merge with another body – was also given the go-ahead to hire 12 new staff.

The recruitment freeze has ended up creating a number of bizarre vacancies in the public service, including an unfilled position for a pharmacist in the Defence Forces in Cork barracks.

In that instance, the State was paying up to €18,000 a month for medication from an ordinary commercial chemist despite having hundreds of thousands of euro worth of pills sitting in the barracks pharmacy, rapidly approaching their sell-by date.

The freeze on recruitment has caused significant difficulties for other areas of the Defence Forces with fifty posts left temporarily vacant earlier this year.

Amongst the jobs left unfilled were two flag officer positions in the Naval Service, which are two of the most senior jobs in the service.