Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 15 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Secondment Policy in the Civil and Public Service: Engagement with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Photo of John McGuinnessJohn McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have rarely heard of a Secretary General being asked to resign but I regularly hear calls for Ministers to resign. Sometimes, when you look at the issue, that may not be appropriate. Secretaries General are held to account by the Committee of Public Accounts but that is about it. I do not see anything else. The Committee of Public Accounts is still in business. If everything was functioning the way it should, that committee would not be in business because everything would be running so well.

In my time here, I have seen the same types of mistakes repeated over and over again. That raises a question as to the response of public sector leadership and the Secretaries General as a collective to Departments overspending or causing a negative perception of themselves to develop. Someone has to take responsibility for that. If you look at the jobs Ministers are involved in nowadays, between Brussels and dealing with world affairs and home affairs, you will see that they are kept quite busy. I presume they expect their Departments to take on the challenge of dealing with shortcomings. That is where I am coming from with regard to sanctions, conditions of employment, accountability and transparency. We all have to be accountable. I believe that any Secretary General asked to come before a committee should do so. That is my view. Although the work of other committees should not be duplicated, they should come before the various committees of these Houses. Until such time as there is change in respect of accountability and transparency, it is my view that Secretaries Generals should have to make themselves available. The Secretaries General across the Departments should be making great efforts to ensure that issues that arise in the context of the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General are dealt with. I am just giving Mr. Moloney my tuppence worth on the matter but I would like to see substantial change in that area.

We have come to the end of our discussion on this. It has been worthwhile and informative. I thank Mr. Moloney and his two colleagues for their time.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.