Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I chair a Cabinet committee which has that overall responsibility but one must have an operational framework and an agreed way forward. It is best to do this on an agreed basis, where one sits down in partnership with employee representatives and management working off an agreed template as to how one is going to implement changes. A level of transformation has been agreed with regard to these matters and in these sectors. These changes have been on the agenda for a long time and are now available for implementation.

The process of negotiation, agreement and subsequent ratification has taken some time but it was time that needed to be invested so that people would see the win win situation to which the Deputy referred. Thankfully, we have an outcome that enables us to go forward.

As I said in my initial reply, there have been developments in e-government, public procurement and other issues, such as the shared services agenda, which are being pushed along. This public service agreement gives all of us the mechanism, so to speak, by which we can go ahead and do what we all want, namely, to see in what way we can provide the most effective and efficient public service possible, using all the potential that exists, not only within the public service and among the people who work there but also using various initiatives such as e-government and others that will assist in ensuring the costs of providing those services are the most effective, as far as the taxpayer is concerned.

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