Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----and Ministers of State, Secretaries General are accounting officers and are a specific identifiable group, and all of the other people mentioned by the Minister are not prevented from being brought in under paragraph (f) or (g).

I was in attendance when the Minister and the Taoiseach launched the Civil Service renewal plan, which is a three year action plan for the Civil Service, published in October 2014. Earlier today, I wondered whether this action plan for the Civil Service had any relevance to this topic. Action No. 22 states the intention is to strengthen policy-making skills and develop a more open approach to policy-making, and we are speaking about policy-making and not implementation. The document states this can be achieved by establishing the expectation that all policy officials maintain an active network of key stakeholders in front-line service delivery, academia and international administration and engage this network regularly, particularly at the early stages of policy development. This is a great group which the Minister could bring together to help him with policy. Inevitably the group would come with particular perspectives. Action No. 22 is a method by which people could influence policy and it needs to be captured in the legislation. People bringing policy to Ministers, such as Secretaries General and county managers, need to be captured in the legislation.

I do not know how many pieces of legislation pass through the Oireachtas each year. It could be between 40 and 60, but I am not sure of the figure. I do know the number of statutory instruments can vary from 700 or 800 to 1,100 or 1,200. The best place for people to see legislation in a transparent manner is in the primary legislation which comes through the House. I am sure it boggles the minds of people to look at the list of statutory instruments on the relevant Department's website each year. They can amount to well over 1,000 and it is very difficult for people to find a particular one.

Secretaries General and their equivalents, such as county managers, should be included in the legislation because it is not balanced to list only politicians as those who can be lobbied and to whom the legislation will apply. It would be fairer to the public service, and would send it a clearer signal from the House, to state Ministers and Secretaries General are included. If the Minister wants to include people below this of course he can do so. To pass legislation which excludes any member of the Civil Service from being captured as a designated public official under the legislation is a mistake.

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