Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will address the Deputy's final point first. Having examined international best practice, we found that, on average, the payback period is approximately four years. Savings, albeit not necessarily in cash, will be achieved immediately. Having accelerated the transfer of activities into the PeoplePoint human resource management entity, we estimate this initiative will achieve an immediate 20% saving in staffing. However, as we do not sack people in the Civil Service, the staff affected will be redeployed and the reduction in staff cannot, therefore, be counted as a saving. PeoplePoint is operating much more efficiently than the previous system and allows staff to do other front-line work.

The Deputy asked a question about Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI. My Department was not involved in this project, for which preparation work commenced some time ago, and I am not familiar with the details. It is a matter for the Minister for Education and Skills. We are carefully evaluating the shared services we are structuring and doing a baseline analysis of data, after which we will do a business case. We are acting in a robust manner and know what we are doing.

We have recruited people with expertise to run these services. Designated senior officers in each sector will be responsible. We will have a dialogue on the reform plan, but we are progressing in a structured, measured and visible way.

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