Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste will be aware that the OECD has completed a review of the second public service reform programme. There is a lot of good to be found in the review. It found that improved transparency and accountability has been delivered, in large part because of the legislation we enacted to regulate lobbyists, to open up freedom of information and to protect whistleblowers. It also confirmed that public servants are delivering additional services with fewer staff and at less cost, which we knew. However, as I said earlier in the debate on the summer economic statement, this proves that the so-called hidden fiscal space is a ball of smoke, but I want to leave that discussion to another time.

The chief negative finding of the OECD report was that outsourcing has not emerged as a systemically viable option for providing public services. This finding will be welcomed by many people who have question marks about the operation of outsourcing initiatives. It also has a much deeper implication, including an implication relating to the continuing delivery of public services via section 39 agencies. These bodies, most of which started out as small scale charities, are often now very large operations. Unlike public services, the people working in them do not have guaranteed wage rates or protected terms and conditions of employment, except it seems for some of those who run such bodies. We have had controversy over section 39 agencies in the past. In case anyone has forgotten about them, the Tánaiste knows them.

The internal audit that was focused on today in the Irish Examiner makes for stark reading. This is an audit of the Catholic Institute for Deaf People. There were pay levels in excess of HSE levels, multiple credit cards in use, including credit cards in the names of people who had left the organisation, and high levels of expenditure on meals, bottles of whiskey and jewellery. Ten years after the scandal of the FÁS expenses and having had, since 2014, the scandals relating to the section 38 and section 39 agencies, what action will be taken by Government to address the particular example highlighted in the Irish Examinerthis morning? More significantly, will the Tánaiste outline the general Government view on the provision of services through section 38 and section 39 agencies?

Is it now appropriate to begin the task of bringing all public services directly under the ambit of the State so that State-funded services will be provided by the State with all the controls and accountability that would bring?

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