Overall staffing levels for Departments and associated non-commercial State agencies are currently subject to annual employment control framework limits set down by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Against that backdrop, exemptions to the moratorium on the filling of vacancies in the public service are subject to the sanction of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Individual requests for exemptions to the moratorium are examined on a case by case basis and sanction may or may not be granted. During 2012, IDA Ireland made nine separate requests for the filling of what they determined were mission-critical posts. All of these requests were granted subject to the Agency’s overall staffing complement being maintained within its ceiling for that year under ECF.