Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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As reported in a recent newspaper article, the Taoiseach said that there may be some stark messages for us from the OECD review. He said, however, that we should be prepared to take hard decisions which the reforms will require. What stark message does the Taoiseach expect to arise from the OECD review? For example, does he expect criticism of public service pay and conditions, or will the report be used as an excuse to impose stricter limits on numbers employed in the public service? Is the Taoiseach aware that an embargo on recruiting new staff means we do not have enough ambulance crews? I came across such an example recently in my own constituency.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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It would be more appropriate for the Deputy to address detailed questions to the line Minister.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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No.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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These are general questions.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to highlight the fact that there is a difficulty concerning ambulance crews.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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It would be better if the Deputy raised that matter with the Minister for Health and Children.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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This may be one of the matters that will emerge from the review. It was highlighted by Mr. Pat Hanafin of the Ambulance Association of Ireland. We also heard from the HSE that a cap on recruitment——

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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I ask the Deputy not to continue along that line. If he has a question, it should be addressed to the Minister.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I have a number of questions.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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They should be put to the Minister for Health and Children.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Will this review of the OECD report bring about cost-cutting measures or will it examine the real value and benefit of the public service in providing vital public services? The Taoiseach referred to joined-up thinking on the public service, but will this review cover joined-up Government? We regularly criticise the education and health sectors where one section clearly does not seem to know what the other is doing.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The review is not a substantive audit of sectors, such as health, education and local government. It is, rather, focusing on the connectivity between various sectors, as I told Deputy Rabbitte, including central and wider sectoral areas. It is examining the effectiveness of arrangements through which Government objectives are translated into outputs and outcomes by means of collaboration by different parts of the system. My Government's polices and strategies in various sectors, such as health, education and local government, will continue in parallel with the review. Every day work continues involving our 350,000 public servants but naturally there are lessons to be learned from the review. Where sensible improvements and refinements to our ongoing work on reforming these sectors are recommended, they will be fed into the overall mix. It is not a pay review and the OECD would have no part in such a review. As I have already said, the review is an holistic, system-wide assessment.

There is also a peer review element in the exercise whereby senior officials and practitioners from countries actively involved — both as part of the fact-finding and drafting teams, and as members of committees — will review the draft report. It is valuable because it will help towards sharing best practice from other countries. It will also provide an element of rigour in the process of framing recommendations in practical terms. Against this background, it was considered that the OCED is best placed to undertake a review of this nature. Similar reviews by the OECD in the economic and regulatory areas were well established and rightly regarded as instruments here. The OECD's public governance and territorial development committee has also established similar peer review processes in other areas, including human resource management, information and communication technology, and ethics in the public service. Any private sector consultancy would struggle to match the OECD in such terms because of its vast experience of peer review benefits, in-house expertise, knowledge and networking to communities of interest among EU member states and further afield.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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What is the relationship or interconnection between the OECD review and the NESF report which was published last Sunday? Is one feeding into the other or are parallel reviews taking place? I would like to check the relationship of one with the other. Has the OECD been given any remit to examine decentralisation and how it affects the issue of public service quality? Does the OECD have a mandate to address the embargo on staff recruitment, given Mr. Paul Appleby's problems concerning corporate governance and the lack of staff available to him for that vital work? Does the OECD have a mandate to make recommendations in that regard? What will be done about the recommendations? Will we receive a report on how they are being implemented or will anything be done about them?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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Account will be taken of the NESF report and any other previous work, which will feed into the OECD's work. In the first instance, the OECD is consulting with the high-level steering group which is at Secretary General level. That group, comprising Secretaries General across Departments, including the Revenue Commissioners, has been set up to oversee the review. The driving force behind decisions made in this respect will be the Secretaries General. The liaison group is at assistant secretary level and was established to support the OECD team that will be undertaking field work here. There will also be an open process whereby members of the public and interested parties can convey their views, including through web-based means, which is what the OECD does with all its reviews. I understand that the high-level steering group is considering a targeted consultation with identified stakeholders, including the social partners, Members of the Oireachtas, senior officials and parties with an interest in public service issues. Those views will be conveyed to the OECD, so the NESF report will obviously fit into that.

The review is being chaired by the Secretary General to the Government. Membership of the steering group comprises representatives from the Department of Finance's public service management and development section, the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Education and Science and Health and Children. The steering group also comprises key public servants, including the Garda Commissioner, the chairman of the County and City Managers Association, the chairman of the Association of Chief Executives of State Agencies and the head of the education department in NUI Maynooth. As I have said, the high-level steering group is being assisted in its work by a group at assistant secretary level. That group is chaired by an assistant secretary of my own Department. It includes most of the major Departments as well as the Revenue Commissioners.

There is a consultative dimension to the review process which will draw on expertise from the business, academic and community sectors, as well as the social partners and other stakeholders. It is a small group comprising an important team. It began its work just after the Christmas break and plans to complete its endeavours by next Christmas, following which the report will be presented.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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What about decentralisation?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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If the group has views on practices in any of these areas it can provide them in the report. There will be no restrictions and there is nothing to stop the group giving its views on embargos or other matters. The Deputy asked about Mr. Appleby who is in the process of getting additional staff. He has 36 staff at present and is getting additional numbers. The reason he is not getting them all is that we made a priority in that Department to put the staff into new inspection sectors dealing with compliance by workers. The number of inspectors has risen from 30 to 90. It rose to 60 last year and 90 this year.

We have set up a whole new division and it is a matter of priorities — it is not that Mr. Appleby's work is not considered important. He already has 36 staff, he is getting four this year and it is hoped he will receive another four. It is a question of prioritising the placement of staff.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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He wants 20, including gardaí.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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He has 36 so it seems extraordinary that he could want another 20; one would not receive such an increase in any Department. He will have to wait his turn because we have given priority to the labour inspectors and other commitments under Towards 2016. We have waited a long time for these so a new organisation can wait a few more years if the staff are required.