Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The organisational review programme – or ORP - report was based on examination of my Department's capacity to deliver for our stakeholders and was published in November 2008. As part of the ORP process, and in response to the ORP team's findings, my Department drew up an action plan aimed at addressing the specific findings of the report and that action plan was published in conjunction with the ORP report.

The plan set out several specific strategic actions the Department was to implement to further enhance and deepen the Department's capacity to deliver our mission, building on the many strengths already evident among the staff working in the Department. My Department established an ORP action plan implementation group in 2009 to oversee and report on the plan's implementation. This group is chaired by a member of my Department's management board and its membership comprises members representing different divisions of the Department.

The various individual actions in our plan are being delivered through a number of key strategies in the areas of staff training and development, HR, quality customer service, ICT and communications, as well as by undertaking specific actions directed at very particular findings. The action plan is augmented by the necessary and evolving change required to meet the challenges resulting from the radically altered fiscal environment in which the Department operates, as well as in light of reduced financial and personnel resources which obtain now and will continue into the future.

I am satisfied the Department is working diligently to deliver its ORP action plan commitments while managing the significantly changed policy environment created by the global economic downturn of the past two years. While there is more to be done to further improve our delivery, the key policies and initiatives necessary to address the findings of the 2008 ORP report are in place and are being implemented. I am satisfied with progress achieved to date in very challenging times for the public service.

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