Is publicjobs.ie legit?

It's actually a very good question!

But yes, it is a legit website.

Before you are asked for a ppsn you have to click past a long Candidate Privacy Statement and Legal Basis for Processing Data. That explains why they are collecting it.

Govt agencies use ppsn because it's govt ID for govt services.

What on earth is special about your PPS number? Happily give it out for any reasonable request and applying for a public service job is definitely an example of a reasonable request. What's next, people refusing to give their names or addresses of phone numbers. Some people could do with earning their own few bob and living in the real world.

That's not accurate. Public jobs facilitate recruitment for all the government's various departments and then staff are assigned to individual departments, who become the employer at that point.

Eg. the Clerical Officer competition, there may be 1000 jobs to give out in total. At the end of the competition process you get your place on the panel eg. 423 and then you when your place is reached you are assigned to Department of Social Protection and you get a letter telling you to report to DSP office in wherever on a certain date and from that date on you are then employed by DSP. You could just as easily be assigned to Dept of Justice or Revenue or any of them, it depends on how many CO's they've each put in for from that competition.

But yeah, people's reluctance to use their PPSN when applying for a public service job or any government service really is baffling. Having to get a PSC card to renew your driving licence is one thing that can be argued against and is a massive pain in the hole, but this is not.

Agreed.

But how is it legal for a public sector employer to use the PPSN this way, when it's not legal for a private sector employer to do so?

Data minimization and control are important. The more places your data is used, the higher the chance that it can be leaked or compromised. If publicjobs.ie are collecting it when they don't need to (as Wood's post suggests), then it's increasing the risk of it being leaked for no benefit.

Your PPSN on it's own isn't particularly sensitive but it can be combined with other data for identity theft. Think of all the things you need your PPSN for these days. This is why it's use is controlled and somewhat regulated because the government understand the importance of it.

But the alternative to PPSN is supplying other personal identifying information which is even easier to use for identity theft.

Then with a job site you're going to be uploading a CV in some form. Full of PII.

they are a registered body for use of the PPSN.

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/2132de-register-of-users-the-public-appointments-service/

Civil Service Jobs - www.publicjobs.ie

Local Government Jobs - https://www.localgovernmentjobs.ie/