Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 2 February 2022
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source
What we really want to see is a culture of innovation as innovation does not belong to any single Department. It is not the preserve of any one Minister and it should be right across government and the public service. The first point to make is we want to see ongoing reforms and new initiatives coming through all the time.
We co-ordinate this to an extent in my Department. For example, we have set up a public service innovation fund and we reward the bodies coming forward with ideas that we believe will have real impact and significant potential. We had a public service innovation week in November last year, which is one of a number of important initiatives that we facilitate under the implementation of the overall public service innovation strategy. I firmly believe that innovation does not come from one document or us telling people they must innovate. People need to identify solutions to problems we are facing and seek continuous improvement in the delivery of services for the general public. A core objective in my Department is to ensure we have good quality public services over a period.
Innovation is a constant but I am happy to provide any information the Deputy needs on the innovation strategy. I am also happy to provide examples of the projects we have funded under the public service innovation fund.
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