Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for welcoming this initiative. One of my first acts was to establish the SPS. We took this opportunity shortly after the Government was formed. At that point, we had summoned all of our ambassadors back to Ireland so that we could give them a briefing on the programme for Government and our economic strategy, allowing for a joined-up international presentation. All assistant secretaries and above were together and I used that forum to discuss the SPS and to build an integrated unit.

My two main concerns about the areas of the public service that I have examined relate to quality of management and proper evaluations of performance. We must improve these elements, albeit not necessarily in a critical way, that is, by pointing the finger at those who are not up to scratch. We should give them the capacity to be up to scratch. There will be coaching and evaluation systems and I will shortly produce a comprehensive paper on restructuring and instituting proper evaluations in the Civil Service. When my Department finishes its work in this regard, we can discuss the matter, perhaps in committee.

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