Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I should warn committee members that, having spoken to the media on the way in, short of murder, I do not think there are lines that will appear in the newspapers tomorrow from this committee, but we are conducting important business. The committee has played and will continue to play a valuable role in considering the public service reform agenda which is very much at the heart of what we want to do as a Government. That is why I wrote to the Chairman to ask for an opportunity to present the documents to the committee.

I propose to brief the committee on the progress made in implementing reforms and also to set out our plans for further public service reform in the coming years. Unlike the private sector where demand for goods and services falls during a recession, the demands on public services have increased in recent years. It is important to underscore these issues. For example, the numbers in receipt of social welfare payments increased by some 260,000, or 18 %, between 2008 and 2012; there are approximately 500,000 more medical card holders now than in 2008; in acute hospitals the number of day cases increased by 92.5 % in the ten years to 2012; and last year there were nearly 49,000, or 6 %, more children in schools than in 2009. While meeting these increased demands, staff numbers in the public service have been reduced by more than 30,000 since 2008. The public service pay bill fell from €17.5 billion in 2009 at its peak to €14.1 billion last year. Longer working hours, new rosters and standardised arrangements for annual leave and sick leave have been introduced and we have also been removing barriers to the redeployment of staff to priority areas across the public service. We have had more movement than at any time in our history. That this has been achieved in an environment of industrial peace is testament to the patriotic resolve of the public service.

Of course, we still face challenges. We will borrow €8 billion this year. Reforming public services is a critical component in meeting these challenges. Effective public governance can also contribute to Ireland’s competitiveness and the attractiveness of its business environment for investment and the important issue of employment creation.

Last month I forwarded a copy of our new reform plan for 2014 to 2016 to each Member of the Oireachtas. I also circulated a copy of the progress report on the Government’s first reform plan, which was published in November 2011. I will give a few examples of the progress made since that time. PeoplePoint, the Civil Service-wide human resources and pensions shared services centre, has been operational since March of last year. It now serves more than 24,000 employees across 19 organisations. When it becomes fully operational in January 2015 it will provide services to 40 organisations, with estimated savings of €12.5 million annually. We are implementing a radical overhaul of our approach to public procurement. Spokespersons have debated the issue on many occasions during Question Time, with a target of €500 million in procurement savings over the next three years, including a target of €127 million this year. An action plan to deliver efficiencies in the State’s extensive property portfolio is currently being implemented. We have issued more than 500,000 public services cards. The cards are currently being used for social welfare payments and the free travel scheme, and we are considering extension of the card to cover a greater range of services.

The office of the Government chief information officer has been established within my Department to maximise the potential benefits of digitisation in delivering services and information. We have made strong progress on this agenda already. The Government services portal www.gov.ienow includes quick links to more than 400 information and transaction services online. A series of public expenditure reforms have been implemented to bring greater structure, scrutiny and openness to budgeting, and we are making good progress in implementing our programme of political and legislative reform, aimed at enhancing openness, transparency and accountability.

The new public service reform plan outlines the key reform initiatives that will be implemented over the next three years. It also addresses the broader ambition for reform between now and 2020. Part of our thinking in producing a second plan is to embed the idea of reform within the system. Reform is not a journey with an absolute beginning and end. Rather, it needs to become a cultural tenet of the public service, where improvement, innovation and value for money are always on the agenda. Central to that is the development of a proactive management and leadership culture within the service. Four key themes run through the new reform plan: delivery of improved outcomes; utilisation of the reform dividend; digitisation and open data; and openness and accountability.

The previous phase of reform had a necessarily strong focus on reducing the cost of delivering public services. The next phase of reform will continue that work but it will have a greater focus on the delivery of improved outcomes for service users. That will include using alternative models of service delivery by commissioning for specific outcomes, more digital delivery of services, and service delivery improvements at sectoral and organisational levels. As part of an increased focus on the needs of service users, we are considering innovative approaches, from social impact investing to funding services in return for delivering specified outcomes. We need to measure the impact of public spending in deciding how and whether we fund those services. Of course, moving to alternative methods of service provision does not alter the fact that the Government is accountable to the public for the overall performance of a service, deciding how and to what extent services are funded, and in regulating the behaviour of service providers.

Public service organisations must also improve how they consult with their customer bases to identify areas where priority action is required to enhance service delivery and to ensure that information and transactions are more readily accessible. As well as centrally driven initiatives, many of the service improvements will be seen at organisational level, where most interaction with the State takes place.

As well as changing how we deliver public services, we will continue to focus on increasing efficiency and productivity. This productivity has been critical to achieving our saving targets to date but also in freeing up resources to meet the challenges facing the public service, as I set out at the start of my contribution. To give just a few examples: The creation of a new single payroll shared service centre for the Civil Service, which is currently under way, will consolidate and integrate payroll processes and practices from 18 to three payroll centres. There will be one service in three locations. It will deliver an estimated €5.6 million in annual savings. There will be more efficient and effective public procurement, with targeted savings of more than €500 million over the next three years. The implementation of the Government’s property management action plan will deliver efficiencies and a more integrated approach to the management of the State’s extensive property portfolio. The Haddington Road agreement will act as a key enabler for the delivery of this next phase of the Government’s reform programme. The agreement will deliver an additional €1 billion reduction in the cost of the public service pay and pensions bill by 2016. The agreement also provides for a total of 15 million additional working hours annually across all sectors of the public service. Every euro saved is a euro we do not have to remove from front-line services.

Under the new reform plan, the reform agenda will be about protecting and improving public services, and over the period of this plan, there will be an emphasis on saving to invest. This reform dividend will underpin and help sustain the reform agenda beyond the current fiscal crisis.

In recent years, the introduction of consumer technology has spread throughout businesses, homes, schools and other public service organisations. The public service must embrace that and make maximum use of digitisation and open data to deliver services and information in innovative ways. A new Government ICT strategy will be published later this year that will address the use of new and emerging technologies, ensuring that e-Government is designed around real needs and taking steps to improve the take-up of digital government. We already have a strong record in that regard. As part of the new strategy, we have captured data on the top transactional services on which the citizen engages with the State. That will help to inform what further services we should put online. We will also bring forward legislation to govern the circumstances under which data can be legitimately and securely shared, to ensure that citizens are not repeatedly asked for information that is already held in other parts of the public service system.

Citizens must be able to clearly see that the public service is working fairly in its decision making, in implementing policy and in delivering public services. We will continue to implement our legislative programme to improve public governance and rebuild public trust in the administrative and political branches of the State. This will include: the enactment and implementation of a reformed Freedom of Information Act, which is moving to Report Stage in the House shortly; the enactment and implementation of legislation to protect whistleblowers, which is also before the Dáil - I expect to complete Second Stage tomorrow depending on the number of speakers that offer - having secured passage through the Seanad; participation in the , which I mentioned previously, with a strong emphasis on the economic potential of open data; the introduction and implementation of lobbying regulation; the continuation of the comprehensive programme of statute law revision; and further strengthening of the ethical framework for office holders and public servants following the publication of the Moriarty and Mahon tribunal reports, underpinned by legislation.

Nor should we overlook the Constitutional Convention. This innovative approach to public policy reform will see this Government present to the people the most radical suite of reform to the Constitution in the State’s history. While the people will, in their wisdom, make the ultimate decisions, it is important that their stamp will be borne on the State’s institutions. Last month, I published a consultation paper on strengthening Civil Service accountability and performance. I regard the matter as of particular importance. That is why I separated it from the reform agenda that I published a week later. This extensive public consultation will assess how greater clarity, certainty and common understanding on the key issue of who is accountable to whom and for what in the Civil Service. An independent panel on accountability has been established to oversee the consultation process and to develop recommendations for me by the end of May. In recent years, we have introduced a suite of reforms to improve how we manage public expenditure - to deliver greater transparency, to enhance efficiency and to ensure that the public finances remain on a sustainable course into the future.

Every day, civil servants deliver many complex roles, including advising on key policies, implementing major projects and programmes, delivering front-line services, representing Ireland’s interests abroad, and supporting and directing the wider public service.

We should also acknowledge the role played by the Civil Service in securing the continuity of the State during the difficult times we have endured in the past five years. Our Civil Service renewal programme will ensure the Civil Service is a strong and capable organisation equipped to address current and future challenges, with a workforce that has the skills, capacity and tools to meet these challenges effectively. As part of the programme, we are looking at a range of areas where capacity and capability need to be developed to meet the challenges we will face in the future. These include leadership; change management; policy formation; and implementation. In the coming months views will be sought from inside and outside the system on what the Civil Service does well and what needs to change to participate in the renewal process. As well as participating in the consultation process online, a series of "town hall" meetings are taking place across the country to seek the input and ideas of civil servants, of all grades and levels, as we develop our vision for the Civil Service to meet Ireland’s needs into the future.

We have made good progress in implementing our expenditure reform programme. For example, the performance budgeting initiative has resulted in more timely and higher quality information being made available to support decision-making and allows the Oireachtas and members of the public to more closely view the relationship between Government objectives, budgets, performance and outcomes. This year IrelandStat - the citizen-focused public service performance information website - is being extended to all Departments and offices. This shows what the Government has achieved, what it did to deliver on these achievements, what it cost and how Ireland compares with other countries.

In delivering reform we will continue to ensure strong implementation and governance structures, which were an important element of the first reform programme. The Cabinet committee on public service reform will continue to provide strategic direction and hold senior managers to account for the delivery of reform. Each Department and office also developed its own integrated reform delivery plans, based on the commitments set out in the overall reform plan but also incorporating its own organisational and sectoral reform objectives. We must ensure we have the capacity and the capability to deliver reform. Leaders and managers across the public service must have a clear sense of what needs to be achieved and they must have a strong focus on performance, delivery and results. Performance management systems must support managers in getting the best from staff and staff must be given the tools and opportunities to develop their own capacity to deliver public services to the best extent possible.

I take the opportunity to thank Mr. Paul Reid, head of the Reform and Delivery Office, for his contribution to the delivery of an unprecedented programme of reform that we have implemented since his appointment in 2011. He will shortly take up the position of Fingal County Manager and I wish him well in this important role which will be more hands-on. He might regret his critical part in reducing the pay of senior public servants at county manager level, but he has been pivotal to all we have achieved in the past three years. The process to secure a suitably qualified programme director to replace him is already under way.

Since we published the first reform plan in November 2011, we have made considerable progress in building a new public service, one that is more efficient, more customer-focused and more responsive to changing priorities and needs. We must build on these achievements and maintain our focus and commitment as we look to the next phase of reforms. In doing so we are always open to good ideas. I welcome the role the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform has played to date and look forward to it playing a pivotal role in a future reform agenda.