Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is not recognised in United Kingdom law, so any post-holder must be given an additional title in order to have legal status and to be paid a salary additional to the parliamentary one. The last Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, was appointed Lord President of the Council, a minister who presides over meetings of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council and has few other formal responsibilities, for this reason. On some occasions the post of First Secretary of State has been used; when John Prescott lost his departmental responsibilities in a reshuffle in 2005, he was given the office to
Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland of State", of which there are fifteen; one for each Minister of the Government. The permanent head of a department is known as the Secretary General (equivalent to a Permanent Secretary in the British Civil Service). The head of the civil service is the Secretary General to the Government, who is also Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach. The largest reform of the civil service occurred in 1984 when the abolition of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs led to the halving of civil service numbers. The affected personnel, mainly postal and telecommunications workers, were transferred to An