Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I propose to share time with Deputies Richard Boyd Barrett and Finian McGrath. This legislation is an outworking of the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements. While I and many public servants do not oppose the concept of greater flexibility, this must be done in a manner that provides reassurance to staff and does not have unintended consequences. Should such consequences arise, provision must be made to revisit the legislation.

My criticism of the entire public service reform agenda is that it has not delivered reform. We repeatedly hear about systemic failures when it is we who are creating or failing to create the systems.

I will highlight a number of issues that arise in the context of this Bill. The Government is not taking a broad approach to what is needed. This legislation, for example, will not result in wholesale or large movements of staff but amounts to a small-scale, technical initiative that will help to fill gaps. The Government must consider a broader reform measure as this legislation is limited in scope and ambition, as it must be in some respects.

Up to now the reform we have seen has been quite regressive. It has been about cutbacks and achieving budgetary targets. However, there is no guiding vision to introduce the kind of institutional reform that delivers good quality public services for the citizens. I will outline examples of the failures I witness on a daily basis. I am sure those on the Government side are not immune from seeing them. People are asking why they are paying increased taxes when they are not seeing a delivery on the other side. I presume the property tax will bring that into sharp focus.

Let us consider where people are positioned in the local government system. I will focus on four counties that demonstrate it very well. Meath County Council has 620 staff for a population of 184,000. Kerry County Council has almost double that staff to serve 40,000 fewer people. Kildare County Council has 835 staff for a population of 210,000 people. Mayo County Council has a couple of hundred more staff but serves 90,000 fewer people. It is not possible to deliver equality of service when there is such disparity in the numbers of people delivering that service and it is not possible to deliver public services without public servants. That deficiency can be seen across the spectrum in commuter-belt areas, on the periphery of Dublin, the periphery of Cork and the periphery of Galway. We have failed to address that particular gap and reform is essential if we really want to introduce equality in public services. How money is allocated to local authorities from the general-purpose grant more or less reinforces the inequality.

That imbalanced policy is also evident in Garda services in the commuter-belt counties. Again Kildare happens to be at the wrong end of the spectrum - it is worst, followed by Meath. It has 666 gardaí. However, Sligo and Leitrim have virtually the same number of gardaí for half the population. There is no rationale for this no matter how frequently I raise it. With a limited cake, why should there be such a difference in the quality of services people-----

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