Professor Muiris MacCarthaigh:

There is something to be said about improving competence and capacity if this is unavoidably going to be part of the story of being a public service. We often talk about generalists versus specialists, but certainly having access to people who understand how decisions are being arrived at in the black box is really important insofar as possible. There is an onus then on the technology and services that are being purchased by the State to perform. There is absolutely no doubt about the efficiencies. I see the British Government has introduced new systems, as mentioned earlier, to bring together historical data very quickly to help decision-making, not to make the decision but just get it there in front of people, rather than them having boxes and boxes of notes. There is, therefore, a bit from regulating what is coming into government but also the competence and capacity skills within the public service as well.