Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to appear before the committee and recognise its importance in our work.

To put it bluntly, the key task of the Government is economic survival. That means getting the country to a better position over a period of years in order that we can get the economy growing again. When both parties were elected to office, the mandate given to them was not just to clear up the economic mess we inherited and bridge the gap between expenditure and tax receipts over a period of years, it was also to seek radical reform of the public sector and specifically to decide how to deal with this. It was important that, nine months after the launch of the public sector reform plan, we put in place a review and set out what we had achieved. As the Minister said, what we are looking for is buy-in and support across the public sector in delivering on these key tasks. We have a clear plan that is headed by a special unit in the Department. There are key time lines with the names of the officials who will deliver the reform within a period of time. We have a political responsibility, as does the committee and all Members of the House, to ensure the plan is implemented.

In much of the commentary surrounding this debate there is no focus on what has been achieved. The achievements have been astonishing, given the economic collapse that occurred in this country. The number in the public sector was 320,000 some years ago and it is just over 290,000 now. It will go down to 282,000 in the next period of time. That is an extraordinary reduction in the total number of public servants. We must ensure the group that is left is organised in such a way that we secure maximum efficiencies within the public sector at a time when more people are using the health service, more children are in school and there are greater demands because of the economic collapse.

I have responsibility for four areas in the plan: shared services, public procurement, property and Ireland Stat. The Minister spoke about the reductions in human resources. To put it simply, we have approximately 860 employed to perform HR functions across government.