Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister appointed by Theresa May on 10 May 2017. During Tony Blair's administration, he modified the law under which the Civil Service operated to create the role of Downing Street Chief of Staff, which though held by a political advisor outranked the Principal Private Secretary. When Gordon Brown ascended to office, he reversed the change to the Civil Service law. When David Cameron became Prime Minister, he promoted the then-PPS to a new post of "Permanent Secretary, Downing Street", a position which took over heading the Prime Minister's Office. In 2012, the postholder, Jeremy Heywood, was appointed as Cabinet Secretary, this
Public service of the Republic of Ireland to An Post and Telecom Éireann respectively. Today there are approximately 37,523 people employed in the national civil service. The defence sector refers to the total number of personnel of the Irish Defence Forces, which consists of the Irish Army, Naval Service and Air Corps. Personnel numbers for each of the three services is as follows: State spending on defence totalled €895 million for 2016. The education sector represents the second largest sector of the Irish public service, with 96,432 employees working in primary, post-primary and third level institutes. A break-down of numbers is as follows: Public spending in 2016