Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to have the opportunity to address the committee today. Last December, I launched the new framework for development and innovation in the public service, Our Public Service 2020. There has been much progress since the first reform programme was started in 2011, in areas including procurement, shared services and Civil Service renewal, and public service reform continues to play a key role in our development. A recent report by the Institute of Public Administration includes many positive findings. For example, our public administration comes first in the EU28 for being the most professional and least politicised and we comes sixth in the EU28 for the quality of public administration. These results are very encouraging and provide a strong foundation for the next phase of reform set out in Our Public Service 2020.

How does this reform framework differ from what has gone before? There is a greater emphasis on the outcomes of reforms and improving the linkages between reform and expenditure. There is also a stronger emphasis on innovation and on working collaboratively and working better across all of Government. There is also a strengthened model of governance, including a public service leadership board, and emphasis on the importance of digital delivery and data in achieving greater efficiency. These are all important themes and I will return to each of them in turn.

The framework itself is built on three pillars. These are delivering for our public, which includes, for example, the continued development of digital services under the public service ICT strategy to deliver improved public services, innovating for our future to support and encourage new thinking and developing our people and organisations to improve strategic human resource management to ensure the right mix of skills and tools are there to support public servants. In addition to reflecting the lessons from previous reform initiatives, these pillars were developed following an intense period of engagement with the public and public servants themselves as, ultimately, it is they who will be responsible for putting the actions in this framework into practice.

How we will ensure we are measuring our efforts and the impact they are having on the public and the country is a key question that was on our minds when designing the strategy document. We listened to the advice of the OECD on outcomes and we are moving the focus of reform to achieving outcomes, in line with its advice and best practice internationally. The approach we have taken is first to identify six high level outcomes, which we are aiming to achieve in the public service in the long run. These outcomes include increased customer satisfaction, increased public trust, greater use of digital tools, better Government effectiveness, quality of public services and greater employee engagement. We are going to make better use of evidence and evaluation in how we assess the performance of the framework. This will help us to be more effective and efficient and to achieve our overall goal of delivering better outcomes for the public. Our vision for the future of the public service is one that is anchored in outcomes for our people and our country. With this goal in mind, the Department recently established a reform evaluation unit to focus on monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of reform as well as creating greater links between expenditure and reform.

One element of Our Public Service 2020 that I would like to highlight is the need to foster a culture of innovation across the public service. A great example of this is Service RePublic, Ireland’s first public service design centre, which is a collaboration between Cork County Council and Cork Institute of Technology. Our public service has always been innovative in responding to issues that face our citizens. We want to build on that wealth of existing experience but also to draw out new innovations by creating a network of innovators across the public service to connect the right people. Globally, innovation in the public sector is becoming increasingly important as a means of meeting new challenges. It is my view that if we act in an innovative way we can develop different solutions that are both cost effective and citizen-centred. Public service organisations need new ways of thinking, new ways of interacting with citizens, and new ways of gathering and using data to keep up with a rapidly changing status quo. Our Public Service 2020 will be key in achieving this. Looking to the future, we are going to work with stakeholders nationally and internationally to establish a bespoke strategy to better embed innovation in the Irish public service.

It is sometimes easy to forget how the public service plays a role in many aspects of our everyday lives. This is why improving them remains so important. We compare very well internationally in digital services, but moving more services online is a goal of Our Public Service 2020. This will be achieved under the ICT strategy. We also recognise that not all services should be digital and that not everyone can easily access digital services. This leads me to an important point, which is that we need to be better at listening to the public and understanding their needs to be able to deliver real and targeted service improvements. To do this we need to communicate more simply with the public. A good example for others to follow is HSELive, a new health information service launched in September.

To really make change happen we need to work together. We need to be able to respond to challenges. The local community and development committees, for example, provide for collaborative and co-ordinated responses to local issues throughout the country. This strategy aims to deepen this collaboration. This is something that will have an effect on the success of many of our shared strategies, which Our Public Service 2020 sits alongside.

There are huge opportunities to do more with data. As the committee may be aware, we are already leaders in the area of open data. Recently, we achieved first place in the European Commission’s open data maturity assessment for 2017. This is a great result, but we need to encourage all public bodies to open up their data. Open data creates opportunities to exploit data in new and innovative ways, especially as more data becomes available. It also helps us to achieve greater transparency and accountability in Government. We want to make better use of data. This will support better decision-making and improve services and access to services.

I suggest all of this because we all take great pride in the work done by our public servants. Their continuous development is very important for the delivery of the strategy. To oversee all of this, we have developed and will launch a public service leadership board. This will include Secretary General or CEO participation from across the Civil Service and a broad range of public service organisations. I see this as being a really important forum for moving forward on public service reform.

I will now give the committee an update on legislation and where we stand on various matters. The committee will recall that we are trying to progress the Public Sector Standards Bill and the data sharing and governance Bill. Committee Stage of the Public Sector Standards Bill took place in April 2017 and the briefing requested by the committee was provided. The Bill aims to significantly enhance the existing framework for identifying, disclosing and managing conflicts of interest and minimising corruption risks, to achieve a shift towards a more risk-based system of compliance.

The Minister of State, Deputy O’Donovan, is taking the Bill forward and he has had meetings with Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and local government representative groups on the issue. In light of the public interest in implementing the Mahon tribunal recommendations, and the central role of this Bill, I ask that the Committee Stage of this Bill be completed promptly.

The data sharing and governance Bill is another priority. We need to deliver more digital services and we need to ensure that public bodies share data in a manner that complies with the enhanced data protection regime under the forthcoming general data protection regulation. The purpose of the Bill will be to promote and encourage data sharing between public bodies by providing a statutory framework for data sharing for legitimate and clearly specified purposes that are compliant with data protection law. We also need to improve the protection of individual privacy rights by setting new governance standards for data sharing by public bodies. Work is well advanced on drafting the Bill and I expect it to be published in the first quarter of this year. I would appreciate the committee's support on that Bill.

In addition, real progress has been made in several areas of different legislation such as the open data initiative, freedom of information legislation, the introduction of the lobbying register and the system for the making of protected disclosures. My Department provides support and guidance to assist the implementation of these measures.

The context in which we provide public services is becoming increasingly complex and challenging. It is very important that we support better collaboration, innovation and joined-up approaches across the public service. We have designed Our Public Service 2020 with this to the forefront of our minds. Ireland has come a long way and we have seen a great change in our economy but the world is continuing to change and is doing so fast. Today’s uncertain and unpredictable global environment poses many challenges, but also opportunities, for Ireland. This strategy will help our public service to be better able to prepare for this.

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to make this presentation and I look forward to any questions and comments from the Chairman and the committee.