Lorraine Higgins (Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important legislation. I welcome the Minister, Deputy Howlin, to the House. I commend him and the departmental officials for expediting the drafting of this legislation and its subsequent introduction in the Oireachtas. We should not doubt that this Bill puts flesh on the bones of our pre-election commitment to reform. The Government is determined to modernise and renew the way public services are delivered. The Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2011 will play no small part in restoring economic growth and sustainability to the Government finances. The main purpose of the Bill is to place the establishment of the Department of public expenditure and reform on a legislative footing. At the same time, it will transfer some functions that are usually within the remit of the Minister for Finance to the Minister for public expenditure and reform. The Bill establishes the Department and bestows the power to effect reform on the Minister. Consequently, it will make fundamental changes to one of our most important Departments.

It must be recognised that the old ways of the public service strangled the capable and ambitious public servants who were full of enthusiasm and dynamism when they entered the public service. However, these recessionary times have presented us with an opportunity to make changes and reforms. We need greater scrutiny of all functions and of expenditure, so we can ensure the best delivery of services and the best bang for our buck. We will all agree that the Department of Finance has enough to do without being expected to implement these changes as well. My thoughts, views and ideas on this matter are accompanied by a caveat. We must be hyper vigilant. We must ensure that when this Bill is enacted, the Department of Finance is not stripped of its best brains and experience at a critical time in our economic history.

I heartily welcome the commitment to cut the number of State bodies and quangos, which grew like fertilised grass during the Celtic tiger era. This should be one of the first tasks of the new Department. It would allow us to start saving money from the beginning. Many of these agencies can be amalgamated or made redundant. While some of these agencies do great work, we need to forensically assess every one of them and determine their necessity and efficiency with regard to every single euro that is spent on them. There are some questions we must ask. Are they relevant? Is their expenditure necessary? What is the alternative to them? How do their results benefit the people of this country? As I see it, the objective must be to guarantee the citizens of Ireland the best possible public service in areas like education, training and health.

Local authorities have been particularly affected by the reduction in frontline services in recent times. However, we are not seeing a ripple effect on the rest of the Civil Service. Many senior and middle managers in the Civil Service are on fat-cat salaries. They need to face reality and accept that things are changing. Their salaries are not inconsiderable. They need to take stock and be open to a voluntary pay cut. How can we possibly tell people earning the average industrial wage to take unpalatable medicine at a time when the economic elite are being left relatively unscathed? Change must happen from the top down. We saw that recently when the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste took pay cuts and Deputies and Senators followed suit. There may be more such reductions in the future. Now is the time for others earning above €200,000 to act similarly. I support this Bill because it provides the necessary legislative basis for the formal establishment of the Department of public expenditure and reform.