Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

Deputy Bruton produced a document containing the analysis that public service reform had failed over a series of Governments for two reasons. First, the person responsible, whether a public servant or a Minister, did not have full Cabinet rank. Second, even when the Minister with responsibility for public service reform had full Cabinet rank he did not have the influential policy levers to deliver the reform in Departments. Two decisions were made in the documents we developed in opposition. One was to vest full responsibility for reform of the public service in a Cabinet Minister. The second was that the Cabinet Minister would have the supervision and allocation of the expenditure within Departments so that he would have the influential levers to encourage Departments to reform along the lines he indicated. That is the background to it.

The functions will be divided along the lines Deputy Lenihan has suggested and in accordance with the legislation. The Minister for Finance will draw on the expertise of the staff who are experienced in public expenditure in drawing up the budget. When the legislation has passed and rolls are clear, legally, we will look at the budgetary cycle to see at what point these things will come before Government. It is intended that both Ministers will operate very closely on the budgetary cycle.

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