Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Most of those in this room have heard me talk about the reform agenda. From the time my Department was established, I have stated that we needed to have an expenditure control Department that also had at its heart a reform agenda. That was agreed in the negotiations on the programme for Government, and hence my Department exists. We have embarked on the programme. We published the plan in November last and we are expeditiously advancing that plan. It is ambitious, and doubly so at a time when we are downsizing considerably the numbers involved in the public service and the payroll bill. As the committee will be aware and as I have stated repeatedly, we want to reduce the numbers by 38,000, compared to peak levels, by 2015 and to reduce the total payroll bill by 20%.

I received Government approval this week - it might be more topical for me to talk about this - to re-examine the Croke Park agreement process. I have had ongoing dialogue with the unions on the implementation of the Croke Park agreement. I commend the engagement of all public servants with the reform and transformation agenda. We have done a remarkable amount in a short period of time, but we need to do much more because the volume of money to be saved from the public pay bill between now and 2015 is insufficient to address unallocated savings.

In particular, unallocated savings in the multi-annual financial framework for next year and 2013 pose a challenge. In light of the additional €800 million in unallocated savings and given the profile of savings expected in the major spending areas of social protection, health and education, it would be an extraordinarily challenging job to make further cuts to those and all Departments.
For this reason, I have been minded for some time to re-examine the public sector pay bill. Some 35% of public expenditure is on public pay, as many services - in the health sector through nurses and doctors and in the education sector through teachers - are people focused and people delivered. It is quite understandable that the pay bill would be a large chunk of expenditure in those areas.
I have something in mind. As I told the Dáil yesterday, I want an additional €1 billion on top of the net €3.3 billion, €3.8 billion gross, that we have targeted by 2015. I want to do this while maintaining core pay as best I can. I do not want to be overly prescriptive, as I have not met the unions yet. They responded positively yesterday evening to my invitation. The public sector committee of congress will meet officials from my Department next week to shape out the discussions that I hope will be embarked upon.
I will give this committee the flavour of my thinking in this regard. I am seeking a transformation of the working week - more hours worked for the same pay and a broader window of normal working from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. so that, if someone works within that framework, one does not attract premium pay. I am also considering how we pay for Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, particularly for services that are provided on a 24/7 basis. This is another challenging body of work on which we have embarked.
I have set out the core philosophy behind the reform plan, namely, placing the citizen at the core of everything we do; maximising new and innovative service delivery channels via, for example, new technologies or new approaches; radically reducing our costs to drive better value for money in everything from shared services to procurement; leading, organising and working in different ways, the agenda to which I just referred; and focusing strongly on implementation and delivery. The action plan that we published last year had timelined actions. We need to deliver them within the timelines as set out.
The Cabinet sub-committee on public sector reform is the main driver to which we report periodically. It is supported by an advisory group of Secretaries General and a reform delivery board of assistant secretaries. Designated senior officials in all Departments, which are responsible for every agency, are driving the change agenda.
We established a reform and delivery office in my Department. Mr. Paul Reid is its director and has responsibility for driving that agenda. I wish to pay public tribute to the Minister of State with responsibility for public service reform, Deputy Brian Hayes, who has been an extraordinary collaborator with me in this work and has done remarkable work, particularly on the procurement side.
I will touch on a few points quickly. We have published the e-Government strategy and launched Ireland Stat, a performance measurement website that is currently in pilot mode. I have asked people to look at it and provide feedback. We have established a senior public service. The idea is to build from all of the different silos of government an integrated public service so that we have free movement of people across the service, better collaboration in the delivery of policy objectives, etc.
A significant reform of the performance management and development system has been agreed and is under way. We have introduced a range of expenditure reforms, some of which I explained to the committee previously. As I stated in my parliamentary dialogue with Deputy Donnelly in the Dáil yesterday, these are elements that we need to advance further. We must take stock of how to undertake the budgetary situation in a more open way, for example, what data are required in a timely fashion and provided via a useful mechanism. We might embark early next year on determining how to deliver the data to the Deputy so that he can embark on an ex ante, rather than ex post facto, analysis of expenditure items.
Yesterday, I told the Dáil that a medium-term expenditure management Bill would be enacted. To date, our multi-annual framework has been implemented on an administrative basis. In accordance with the EU-IMF agreement, however, we will put it on a statutory basis. We have published the legislation to do this.
I have mentioned the whole-of-year budgetary statement and process. Previously, I discussed the public spending code. I have also indicated our establishment of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES. I was about to say that it would involve bright new economists. I hope they will be bright, but that remains to be seen. Given their curricula vitae, they are competent people and will be placed across government so that we can have sharp economic advice. In any analysis of the old Department of Finance, the lack of economic analysis is an element that has been criticised. Economic analysis should not reside in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform or the Department of Finance. Rather, economic advice and evaluation should be undertaken at line Department level. I have spoken to colleagues about this matter. Some have indicated a willingness or even an anxiety to have this resource.
I have discussed the Croke Park agreement and do not propose to say anything further only to answer members' questions.
I will bring the committee up to speed regarding political reform. Members know our agenda. The Ombudsman (Amendment) Act 2012 has been signed into law by the President. It is the most significant advance in the Ombudsman's remit since the office's establishment 30 years ago. I thank Deputies and Senators for their co-operation in this regard. The Seanad in particular held a useful Committee Stage debate.
Following Government approval, drafting of the protected disclosure in the public interest Bill, what we call the "whistleblower's Bill", is well advanced and I hope to publish the Bill early next year so that it can be before the House in the next Dáil session. In July, I received Government approval for the drafting of a Bill to reform freedom of information, FOI, legislation and to extend it to all bodies. A general scheme was submitted to this committee, which can make a significant contribution to refining the proposals. I presume it is doing so. I expect to be in a position to publish the FOI Bill when the committee has reached its conclusions. We can reflect on those.
Following the publication of the final report of the Mahon tribunal, I stated that we would examine all existing legislation on the governance of ethics, which is a major job, and consolidate the existing legislative framework. This challenging body of work is under way in my Department.
Recently, I announced that the Government had approved the drafting of a Bill to provide a comprehensive statutory framework for Oireachtas inquiries. I thank the Chairman and the committee for engaging with this process. Some members viewed the timeframe as being tight and would have preferred a longer consideration period. I am mindful of the public demand for an inquiry into the banking sector in particular. We need to have the legislative framework to allow that. Clearly, the Government had hoped to be able to do it in a different way, but the people in their wisdom determined otherwise in the referendum last year. We must do it within the confines of existing constitutional arrangements.
In crafting the new Bill, we have taken great care to be mindful of the Abbeylara judgment and the constraints implicit in previous discussions from In re Haughey to all legal cases. Members will find it to be a robust piece of work.

I am anxious to have that enacted in order that we can move to the inquiry phase.

I am a parliamentarian fundamentally and I like the business of Parliament having oversight and control. I acknowledge the view that once someone migrates into the Executive, his or her view of Parliament becomes more jaundiced and as soon as he or she migrates back, he or she becomes robust in his or her defence of the role of Parliament. The inquiry role of Parliament is a fundamental function that we have not done well here, with some honourable exceptions. I do not know whether a committee member was part of the DIRT inquiry but there is scope for both Houses to be involved in inquiries in a way that not has happened to date and I hope that legislation will enable us to do that.

The general scheme of the Bill on the registration of lobbyists is being prepared and it is on my desk and I hope to bring that to Government in the next week or two. Unfortunately, I will be sending that in the committee's direction for more scrutiny.