Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I will not disagree with that in the context of the wider public service. For example, if gardaí catch an individual robbing a car, they must fill out ten forms to justify they caught the person robbing the car. However, that is called justice and one has to go through these procedures. If we keep going this way, we will have more gardaí who are better at handwriting than catching criminals. This is the problem. Procedures are in place and people check on gardaí as to how they caught someone and whether they got the right person. That is part of modern life.

The Deputy is correct that it is an annoyance to people in the health, education and justice services. In the Civil Service, however, it is different. When drawing up its customer charter initiative, the Revenue Commissioners asked members of the public, such as those involved in small businesses, what they wanted in, for example, turnaround times. This was done in tangible terms, looking at what standards of service customers could expect to receive from a section or division. With this in mind, over the past several years each Department and Government office has drawn up and is committed to a charter of service standards for customers that will be delivered. These are measurable in order to establish a benchmark for future improvements in services. It requires work in setting it up but it is not done by a group of civil servants in isolation but through consultation with the people they are serving.

There are many benefits to these charters. The process of drawing them up is based on consultation with customers and frontline staff. It establishes clear performance standards which are committed to publicly. It introduces a series of methods to measure standards performance and service delivery through, for example, surveys and the publications of results.

Public service organisations must make these public statements and must be accountable in this way. I accept they should not spend all day drawing up reports and plans when they must deliver services. However, the idea is that if the charter is in place, they must deliver. It puts pressure on the system to deliver. This has worked well in my Department with regard to the speed at which queries from the public are replied to. These replies contain an acknowledgement and detailed information. The process has changed the way public service organisations think.

All Departments and Government offices have published customer charters. The extent to which service targets have been met are reported in their annual reports. It is not just an excuse for paperwork but a commitment as to what they must do and the time it should take to provide a service. Delivery of these commitments is then detailed in the annual report.

The process is making the Civil Service more efficient. The Deputy will recall how it was difficult to introduce new technology in the Civil Service. Both the Civil Service and the public service now embrace new technology. Is it enough? No, it is not. Is there room for improvement? Sectors, such as the HSE, need far better technology. We had rows about PPARS but some services need better technology. There are too many different systems with different procedures. Leaving aside delivery of services to the public, the management of systems can be too complicated and cumbersome. There were too many systems in the health board and there still are. It is a major task, on which I have been spending some time recently, to see whether we can put in place a system that makes sense in terms of better management performance and financial data.

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