Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The provision of effective, customer-focused, value for money public services is a central aim of the Government. The OECD report we are discussing provides us with a platform for the modernisation of the manner in which we deliver public services to citizens.

By any analysis, our public service has made enormous progress in the past decade. The efficiency and customer service focus of the Revenue Commissioners is one example and the increased integration of special needs education into mainstream education is another.

There have been significant improvements in the internal organisation of Departments and public bodies. Basic changes have been made in the way in which public service pay is determined and staff have accepted real changes in terms and working conditions. The recent introduction of annual output statements, initially in Departments, by my predecessor means that attention can now be focused on the level of delivery provided for citizens by each organisation. The OECD acknowledges the very important contribution the public service has made to our economic success.

In spite of the foregoing, there is now a clear need to intensify the modernisation process. Consequently the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, commissioned this report just over a year ago. Shortly after my appointment to Government last June, I put on record my dissatisfaction with the proliferation of Government bodies and agencies. We have gone too far right across government in handing over specific functions to agencies. In doing so, we are abdicating our responsibilities as the elected Government of the people. I, therefore, welcome the OECD's acknowledgement of the need to improve governance and I regard its recommendations in this area as among the most important in the entire report.

When the Government asked the OECD to carry out this work, it was provided with clear terms of reference. It was asked, first, to benchmark the public service in Ireland against other comparable countries and, second, to make recommendations as to the future directions for public service reform that will support the Government's drive for the delivery of world-class services to the citizen.

The review team conducted a series of over 100 interviews with Ministers and Oireachtas members, Government officials, social partners and other stakeholders from relevant bodies, the private sector and academia. In addition, following an advertising campaign in the media, a total of 834 submissions were received from private individuals and a further 102 submissions were received from various organisations.

The main recommendations of the report cover a wide range of issues relating to the formulation of policy and the delivery of services. The first of these relates to the need to focus on delivering the best services to citizens. This prioritisation on the part of the OECD must be correct. The citizen must be at the core of public services as it is the citizen who funds them. This must be borne in mind by all public servants in their dealings with citizens. Given the unprecedented resources invested by the Government in the past 11 years, it is only right that the public should demand improved levels of service delivery in its dealings with the public sector.

I welcome the OECD report's call for a more integrated public service. There is clearly a need for better interaction between stakeholders at local, national and international levels, and across these levels. The average citizen expects that Government services will operate in an integrated way and does not expect that he or she will have to commute between a range of public service bodies to avail of services that may be integrated.

I am conscious that moving towards such an integrated public service needs to be achieved in a carefully structured way so we will retain the benefits of initiatives already commenced. Staff should not feel threatened by this approach as the Government has a track record of advancing initiatives through a process of consultation with staff interests, and it will continue to do so.

In the past decade or so, Ireland has experienced unparalleled levels of economic success and prosperity. However, the economic environment has clearly become more challenging in recent months and the outlook is less benign and more uncertain. The risks that were identified in the last budget have materialised — recent developments in the international financial markets have led to a squeeze on liquidity; further appreciation of the euro against the dollar and sterling has made us the possessor of a strong currency, thereby weakening our international competitiveness; lower international growth; and, domestically, a sharper slowdown in housing construction. Therefore, we must all accept that the short-term prospects are more challenging and we must ensure that we respond appropriately. One way in which we can respond is to ensure that our public services are as efficient and effective as possible.

I agree fully with the report's suggestion that there must be a move towards a performance focus with more information being gathered and made available on the outputs and outcomes that have been achieved. My predecessor already has set in train the first steps in this process with the introduction of annual output statements for Departments. The OECD has acknowledged the success of these statements and has recommended that they be extended to agencies.

One timely proposal from the OECD relates to the need for greater prioritisation within budgetary frameworks. This means that, as a community, we will not be able to pursue all of our goals at the same time. The Government must focus on the priority areas of protecting the weaker in society by maintaining a high level of social spending, delivering better and more effective public services, seeking value for money at all levels of public spending and continuing to invest heavily in public infrastructure to support Ireland's long-term prospects.

The OECD rightly believes that e-Government must be used more widely to achieve a more citizen-centred approach. As Members are aware, the Taoiseach announced recently that responsibility for e-Government would be consolidated in my Department. This is in keeping with recommendations from both the OECD and the Comptroller and Auditor General's special report on e-Government.

One of the key tasks for the Department will be to establish the scope of the next e-Government programme. To this end, my Department will engage with Departments, offices and other public bodies to identify opportunities and to develop achievable e-Government targets. Such targets will be set in the context of the wider modernisation programme underlying the need to improve the quality of customer service and Ireland's standing in international benchmarking and perception, the need to drive administrative and process simplification and the need to improve value for money in a tightening fiscal environment. My Department also will establish a mechanism for reporting on such targets to the Government and for keeping it apprised of progress on a regular basis. It will focus on developing responses to the various benchmarks in this area, with particular emphasis on achieving better ratings in the European Union benchmarks. In this context, my Department also will agree with public bodies those services that should not be delivered on-line, as well as a rationale for their exclusion.

One significant e-Government initiative is Reach, the public services broker project. Following a review of Reach, its functions were transferred to my Department from the Department of Social and Family Affairs in April of this year. In line with the recommendations in that review, my Department is integrating the functions of the Reach portal onto existing Government websites, using off-the-shelf software for some of the more costly elements of the broker, and evaluating possible new approaches to addressing the problem of reliably establishing on-line identities. My Department also will work on developing template e-Government systems to help small and medium public bodies develop quickly an on-line presence on the Internet.

Now that the OECD team has completed its significant task, the process must be taken forward. The Government must assess each recommendation to ascertain which are optimal and can be taken forward immediately and which must be considered in more detail. With this in mind, the Taoiseach recently announced the formation of a task force to examine, among other matters, the OECD report. The terms of reference for the task force will require it to prepare for consideration by the Government a comprehensive framework for renewal of the public service, which will take into account the analysis and conclusions of the OECD report, as well as the lessons to be drawn from the strategic management initiative, the organisational review programme and the recent efficiency reviews.

The task force will be made up of those who have wide experience in both the public and private sector. The requirement for the task force to complete its work and report back to the Government by the end of the summer underlines the determination of the Government to maintain momentum in this process. The task force will consult with the public service unions as part of its work programme.

As I noted at the outset, the reform of the manner in which services are delivered to the citizen and the quality of those services is a central priority for the Government. The report provides the Government with a springboard for the reform process. It will stimulate a useful debate on the continued modernisation of the Irish public service and I wish the task force well in considering how many of the interesting recommendations included in the report can best be applied to Irish circumstances. I look forward to hearing Members' views on the report's findings and its suggestions on how the task force should proceed.

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