Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

The Minister for Finance's speech is more of the same. The Government commissions expensive reports, such as this OECD public management review and while it is a good report, it merely states the obvious. Although the Minister has left the House, I note the presence of the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Martin Mansergh. I wish to make some references to the contents of the Minister's speech. He referred to what the Government has done in respect of increased integration of special needs education into mainstream education. What of the children with autism? The new OECD report refers to being citizen-centred. What about being child-centred? What of a child who has a special need to access in respect of applied behavioural analysis, ABA? No reference was made to it in the Minister's speech.

I note the Minister for Finance had a get-out clause in respect of agencies. He stated he had put on record his dissatisfaction with the increase in Government bodies and agencies. I am sure this is the case because 200 such bodies have been established under the Government's watch since 1997. A total of 1,000 such bodies exist, many of which are duplicating work.

As for the economic outlook, the Minister took no responsibility for the fact that when proper public service reform was required, the Government did absolutely nothing. While there have been countless reports, they never have been acted upon. Although the OECD report is good, will the Government act on it? Moreover, the Taoiseach, as Minister for Finance, set up the task force for public sector reform. While I welcome the putting in place of its committee members, will its recommendations be acted upon? Will it come up with anything that is not already known? I refer to the squandering of money and the simple measures that should have been put in place. For instance, public sector bodies and agencies should have been told to set targets of cuts in administration costs of 2% or 3% per year, thereby perhaps enabling the savings to go to frontline services.

As for output statements, as a new Deputy and an accountant, they provide little value. In the main they are narrative in form and must be reconsidered. They should be framed in language that will enable Members to engage in proper scrutiny. I refer to looking after those who are less well off. Since 2002, Government-regulated services have contributed 45% of the rate of inflation. Furthermore, the poor and vulnerable are affected by high rates of inflation in many respects and the Government has done little in this regard.

No proper planning took place in respect of e-Government and the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the subject was damning. I note the Minister for Finance referred to the public service broker project. However, he completely neglected to mention that €35 million has been wasted on that project to date. Although he was discussing the Government's actions, he failed to mention the ill-functioning nature of the project. Furthermore, the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on e-Government stated that no plan was in place for 2007. While a plan existed for 2005 and 2006, proper planning was absent. In this regard, I was present at the final appearance of the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, before the Select Committee on Finance and the Public Service. He admitted, on reflection, that the single area on which the Government was accountable pertained to the proper planning of e-projects and various projects. The Government obliged officials to perform their day jobs as well as trying to manage sophisticated projects. Specific teams, perhaps from several Departments, should have been looking after this area and the Government stands indicted in this regard.

I revert to the OECD report itself. It speaks about two main issues, namely, an integrated public service and citizen-focused services from the public service. In layman's terms, "integrated" means there is duplication of effort between Departments and agencies. Furthermore, an element of turf warfare probably is taking place between various agencies and this will come down to the individuals concerned. The phrase, "citizen-focused services", simply means that those who ring a Department will not be left waiting for 20 minutes to get through and will not be pushed from one person to another.

While many public servants do a terrific job, the consistency of service I seek is absent. That is a key point because one may phone the public service and receive an excellent service from one individual but speak to a different person when one calls again. This relates to management and putting systems in place.

Reference was made to Ireland's considerable demographic changes in recent years. Nearly 15% of Ireland's population is foreign-born. These people are very welcome, but that brings its own challenges. With our ageing population, the dependency ratio is increasing rapidly, which also presents challenges.

The report makes specific reference to proper planning for schools, which is important. That has not happened to date. In many urban settings houses are built and there are many young children, but no space is left to build schools. Some local authorities are good in this regard and others are not, but consistency is needed.

Regarding Government agencies, the report uses the word "agencification", which relates to the proliferation of agencies. The report states that the Government uses agencies to increase the number of people working in the public sector via a back door system. The report is critical of this practice because it has lead to a lack of accountability and increased fragmentation.

My final point relates to decentralisation and it will be of interest to the new Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Deputy Martin Mansergh. Decentralisation, which is now called administrative relocation, was not properly planned and if it is not properly implemented now it may lead to further fragmentation. I welcome the fact that the Comptroller and Auditor General has seen fit to conduct a report on this matter. The Government stands indicted. The Minister for Finance of the time, Mr. Charlie McCreevy, announced decentralisation to some fanfare on 3 December 2003. He said over 10,000 jobs would be decentralised by the end of 2006 and that if this was not achieved heads should roll. I have not seen heads roll yet. Will that happen? Only 2,700 jobs have been decentralised so far and only 120 people were decentralised in 2008. Only 50% of these people came from Dublin. What will the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, do on this issue? Will there be decentralisation and what changes will be introduced?

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