Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Account will be taken of the NESF report and any other previous work, which will feed into the OECD's work. In the first instance, the OECD is consulting with the high-level steering group which is at Secretary General level. That group, comprising Secretaries General across Departments, including the Revenue Commissioners, has been set up to oversee the review. The driving force behind decisions made in this respect will be the Secretaries General. The liaison group is at assistant secretary level and was established to support the OECD team that will be undertaking field work here. There will also be an open process whereby members of the public and interested parties can convey their views, including through web-based means, which is what the OECD does with all its reviews. I understand that the high-level steering group is considering a targeted consultation with identified stakeholders, including the social partners, Members of the Oireachtas, senior officials and parties with an interest in public service issues. Those views will be conveyed to the OECD, so the NESF report will obviously fit into that.

The review is being chaired by the Secretary General to the Government. Membership of the steering group comprises representatives from the Department of Finance's public service management and development section, the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Education and Science and Health and Children. The steering group also comprises key public servants, including the Garda Commissioner, the chairman of the County and City Managers Association, the chairman of the Association of Chief Executives of State Agencies and the head of the education department in NUI Maynooth. As I have said, the high-level steering group is being assisted in its work by a group at assistant secretary level. That group is chaired by an assistant secretary of my own Department. It includes most of the major Departments as well as the Revenue Commissioners.

There is a consultative dimension to the review process which will draw on expertise from the business, academic and community sectors, as well as the social partners and other stakeholders. It is a small group comprising an important team. It began its work just after the Christmas break and plans to complete its endeavours by next Christmas, following which the report will be presented.

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