Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

This afternoon I announced several key developments in regard to public service reform, including the publication of the Government's public service reform plan which sets the basis for the comprehensive and strategic reform of the public sector in the coming years. At the heart of this reform agenda is a focus on five major commitments to change. These include placing customer service at the core of everything we do; maximising new and innovative service delivery channels; radically reducing our costs to drive better value for money; leading, organising and working in new ways; and a strong focus on implementation and delivery.

The plan, which has been circulated to all Deputies and is available on my Department's website, outlines the priority actions and time lines for reform in a broad range of areas such as public service numbers, e-Government, customer service, shared services, procurement, business process improvement, public expenditure reform, agency rationalisation and so on. Several actions in these and other areas are already under way. The plan also focuses on actions to improve performance by organisations and individuals in order to ensure greater efficiency, effectiveness and economy.

The reform plan sets out how implementation should be driven and monitored, including by the reform and delivery office which I have established in my Department. It is planned to have an integrated approach to public service reform which will align a number of key elements, including the programme for Government, the comprehensive review of expenditure, delivery of reform to front line services within individual sectors, co-ordinated delivery of key cross-cutting reforms and the public service agreement.

My Department has been given a clear mandate to drive and enable public service reform and the focus now is on implementing the key reforms required. In this context, the new reform and delivery office has a key role to facilitate, drive and support the reform programme. The office is being led by a recently appointed programme director who is working closely with organisations across the public service with a view to enabling them to drive the delivery of reform at a local level, as well as lead on cross-cutting reform issues.

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The challenging fiscal position which we face means that far-reaching reform of the public service is essential in order to ensure it is customer-focused, leaner, more efficient, better integrated and delivering maximum value for money. Significant savings are already being made by this Government, not least in regard to public service numbers. A reduction of 5,000 is expected this year, bringing the numbers to below 300,000 by the end of 2011. By 2015, public service numbers are expected to have fallen by 37,500 since 2008, a reduction of almost 12%. Once achieved, this will have reduced our gross pay bill by more than €2.5 billion, or 15%, since 2008. The public service agreement implementation body today published a summary of progress on the implementation of the agreement in the last six months, which shows that good progress continues to be made in that regard.

The comprehensive review of expenditure, CRE, has involved a root and branch examination of all areas of public spending in order to determine where resources can be moved from old spending lines to new priorities and how the business of Government can be delivered in new ways. The outcome of the CRE, which has involved input from all Departments and their agencies, will be published shortly.

The process of reform that is under way will create a public service of which we can be proud, building on Ireland's long tradition of service to the public and the State. I look forward to engaging with the relevant Oireachtas committees in this regard.

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