Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The OECD report examined a number of agencies and made a number of recommendations regarding governance and improving the performance of agencies. The task force on public service will examine all issues set out in the report and specific actions to address these recommendations will be set out in its comprehensive response. It is, however, simplistic to say that reducing the number of agencies improves services. If the OECD recommendations are carefully read, it instead is indicating that a properly established, well governed agency can be effective and can lead to improvements in service delivery. The next phase of public service reform will need to examine further how existing agencies are governed, the dialogue and accountability arrangements in place between parent Departments and their agencies and whether there is scope for agencies to merge with other agencies or whether there is an ongoing need for the service they provide.

With regard to the establishment of new agencies, all proposals to Government will have to be carefully examined and critically assessed to see whether the task can be done by an existing agency instead. Where there is a need to create an agency, we will ensure that appropriate governance and reporting mechanisms are put in place and focused on delivering services to maximise benefits to citizens and provide effective value for money.

The real issue in respect of agencies is guaranteeing better outcomes for the public. The newly appointed task force will examine this issue and how best to implement the OECD's recommendations so as to do this in the proper way. The report also indicates that progressing the public service reform and modernisation agenda lies not solely in changing the institutional architecture or the allocation of responsibilities between Departments, offices, agencies and levels of Government, but in getting the different parts of the system working differently with a greater focus on collaboration, achieving wider societal goals and ensuring that the reforms introduced are appropriately sequenced. The OECD cautions against trying to reorganise functions across levels of Government in favour of trying to have organisations and individuals behave differently and in collaborative ways.

It is a question of how to get existing organisations to work better beyond their remits and how they interact. That is the purpose of the reform. In terms of shared services, the question is how to reduce costs. There have been some good examples in the public service in that area, specifically as regards waste management. Generally speaking, there has been an impressive improvement in the reduction of waste to landfill as a proportion of total waste produced. Recycling and other initiatives have been working very well in recent years. The remediation of landfills that do not meet the required EU standards is a major cost input with which we must deal, a legacy of our past.

The report relates to the task force sequencing the way in which reform should take place, determining how to work and interact with other stakeholders, such as trade union representatives, in getting across the message of how the new culture they are trying to establish will avoid fragmentation and set in place an integrated senior public service across Departments and agencies so that we can better provide services for the public.

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