Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate the point made by Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, about the importance of accelerating the growth agenda central to the 28 member states and especially the 18 members of the eurozone. The Purchasing Managers' Index, PMI, is one of the key indicators in the eurozone of whether we are beginning to see the emergence of a strong recovery. Today the PMI highlights that the 18 eurozone members have reached a 32-month record for accelerated and strong growth. That is crucial to this country. If ever there was an internationalised economy within the eurozone, it is this one. No country is more privatised, deleveraged and dependent on the success of the eurozone project and of increasing market share. The only yardstick on which this Government should be judged, after three years or five years in government, is whether it is providing for our people a way back to normal work and opportunity. Today's figures show that there are fewer than 400,000 people on the live register - still far too many, but significant progress has been made in the past 12 and 24 months to give opportunities to people who are out of work.

There is renewed confidence in the eurozone as a result of the retrofitting of its economy, although it took a long time to happen. The building blocks of confidence exist, whether it be the banking union, the six-pack, the two-pack or the essential ingredient of the fiscal treaty towards progress. We are beginning to see the emergence of that progress. Long may it continue, because this country depends on it.

I do not intend to use my time to talk much about the Government. The debate this morning was pretty much "as you were". This is a good opportunity for the Opposition to prosecute the Government on what it wants to do for the next 12 months. That requires people on both sides being honest and open. I do not direct that at Deputies Ó Caoláin and Michael McGrath; on the contrary, they are some of the more constructive Members of the House and of their respective parties. There is a need for people to be honest about what we want to do. When people talk about Dáil reform they do not really mean reform; they mean a continuation of the daily Punch and Judy performance. We need fewer theatrics and more substantial work on prosecuting the Government on a range of policy options. Tonight, the Government will accept Deputy Michael McGrath's Private Members' motion. This is the third Private Members' Bill we have accepted. The Government is willing to meet the Opposition halfway and beyond to make solutions the key priority.

Everyone agrees these past few years have been very difficult for the people. We are beginning to see the strong roots of an economic recovery take hold. As long as more people return to work and there is growing confidence in the economy, there is no reason not to believe that better days lie ahead, especially with the confidence that will result from the emergence of the eurozone economy from this very difficult period.

I will go through some of the issues I have worked on in property management, procurement and shared services, and in the Office of Public Works, OPW, which will give colleagues the opportunity to question me about what I will do this year. Property is the third biggest cost for the Government and the OPW has the central role in its management. Three years ago the total amount spent on renting property was €131 million. I am pleased to announce that the cost of property rental last year was €97.5 million. As we get out of leases and encourage the central State property section to put different agencies into one premises, as Deputy Naughten suggested, we can make great savings. That is an example of the reforms we have introduced. We are also taking a whole-of-Government approach and making sure a mandate is in place to deliver this effective reform in office accommodation.

We have focused on procurement. Of the €14 billion spent, we can address approximately €9 billion by way of procurement. We have set up the Office of Government Procurement, OGP, which has a mandate to save €500 million over the next three years by way of better procurement. We are relentlessly pursuing that plan. The objective is to obtain €127 million in savings this year. I am confident that we can obtain much greater savings in procurement by centralising it. The SME sector, which gets the lion's share of this work, could get a bigger share by coming together, having a more sensible approach to insurance and turnover, and making sure it is available to the State by way of e-tenders and better legal documentation. The Government will relentlessly pursue the public procurement agenda over the next few years.

By bringing central Government HR together we have saved over €13 million, or 17% of the total cost of the HR shared service component.

That is the blueprint every other public sector user outside of central government needs to employ. Enormous savings have been introduced in shared services. We are introducing a new payroll shared service centre which will centralise pay and pensions delivery for central government and work is progressing on better financial management capacity across the system. We believe savings of more than €6 million can be obtained by this approach. If we relentlessly pursue our objectives on shared services and procurement, there is no reason we cannot achieve even greater savings.

The total cost of the Irish Presidency of the European Union in 2004 was €110 million. The Government spent a total of €42 million on Ireland's most recent Presidency in 2013. It is largely accepted internationally and domestically that we did a good job during that Presidency. This is an example of the kind of savings that can be achieved when we put our minds to it.

I am happy to report that in terms of the OPW's heritage services, we have done things differently. The first Wednesday initiative has helped to increase visitor numbers by 6% year on year. We have greater involvement with community initiatives across the country. I have asked the private sector to provide funding for concession opportunities and we have received 42 expressions of interest. I will shortly be announcing a list of historical sites that can be used for civil ceremonies. These initiatives will help to generate additional funds that we can invest in second tier sites around the country. The OPW is doing things entirely differently as a shared service provider for other Departments. An example of this is the provision of Intreo offices on behalf of the Department of Social Protection and the Irish youth justice facility at Oberstown. The OPW is implementing the shared service model across the property and projects portfolio for central government.

It is absolutely right that the Government should be prosecuted on its policies, but it is wide of the mark to suggest we have not fundamentally changed the way in which we deliver public services in a context in which we have taken out 18% of the cost and 30,000 civil servants. Enormous changes have occurred and it is only right that our policies should be prosecuted by way of Opposition engagement in this House.

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