Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

The Government is committed to reducing public service numbers in accordance with the programme for Government subject to there being no compulsory redundancies and to the protection of front line staff. The recruitment moratorium is a means to this end and is being used with redeployment and increased productivity to limit the impact of necessary savings on all public services. As outlined in the Government programme, this will involve a fundamental change to the way in which the Government and the public service operates, including the rationalisation of core processes across the public service, a reduction in the number of State bodies and the elimination of non-priority programmes and outsourcing of non-core functions, where appropriate. This is being reinforced by the comprehensive expenditure review which focuses on reform and on new ways of delivering public services taking advantage of the opportunities and challenges arising under the Croke Park agreement. This review will identify the policy decisions within which the reduction of public service numbers will be made. These numbers reductions will be a driver for public service wide reforms. This includes reforms to the manner in which frontline and back office services are delivered across the public service. Staffing resoures will be refocused on delivering priority service and programmes as set out in the Government programme.

The comprehensive review of expenditure, therefore, seeks to identify areas where reductions can be achieved and will identify areas where staffing resources can be freed up through the use of shared services. In the Croke Park implementation group's first progress report, Exchequer pay bill savings in the order of €289 million were identified as having been achieved in the 12 months to end March 2011. The provision under the National Recovery Plan 2011-14 is for a gross Exchequer paybill of almost €16 billion in 2011. When compared with the 2010 paybill, this would represent a savings target of approximately €223 million for 2011.

At this point it is expected that the target for a gross Exchequer pay bill of almost €16 billion for 2011 will be met. Current targets for staff numbers will be kept under review in the context of budgetary considerations later in the year.

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