Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I echo the Deputy's view on the quality of the Civil Service.

I remarked at the launch of the Civil Service reform document that on the evening before the final departure of the troika, the head of the troika group told me it had never dealt with a more competent Civil Service than ours. I thought that was high praise and I passed it on. However, we need to modernise and upskill, as well as to provide clarity about roles in the Civil Service. The Deputy asked a number of specific questions. We need to give clarity to civil servants about what they are expected to do before we can evaluate how well they are performing their roles. We also need to provide proper supports in terms of training. We have been recruiting specialists because there are skills deficiencies in the spheres of economics, human resource management and procurement. I expect that we will see more specialists and fewer generalists in the future. In the past, the bulk of civil servants were clerical officers but they are being replaced by much more technology as people use online mechanisms.

I am excited by the capacity of the new digital age to provide more effective services. More than 400 public services are currently accessible online and we want to migrate more services online. We are analysing the 20 most used services to see how we can make them more efficient for citizens. The first phase in our public service reform programme was, by necessity, focused on saving money by improving efficiencies. The next phase will be more focused on improving the experience of our citizens when we deliver the services on which they depend.

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