Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Question 81: To ask the Minister for Finance if he has ruled any recommendations in or out from the OECD report on public service reform which has been passed to a new committee for consideration. [21913/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the OECD review as a major contribution to the ongoing modernisation of the public service. When the Government initiated the OECD review, it requested that our public service be benchmarked against those of other comparable countries and that recommendations be made for the future direction of public service reform. We wanted to know how the decisions the Government is making are translating into services for the citizen and how this can be improved.

The OECD review includes many positive observations on the public service. It acknowledges the central role played by the public service in contributing to an economic success story that many OECD countries would like to emulate. It recognises we are on a sound trajectory of modernisation but argues that we could further improve the yield from reforms by renewing focus on their pace and sequencing to make them more mutually reinforcing.

I agree with the OECD that there is a compelling need to adopt a more citizen-centred approach. There must be an increased focus on service delivery over internal reforms and a shift in emphasis from organisational inputs to outcomes for the citizen. The modernisation process must deliver to the user results that are clear, useful and verifiable. We must have public services with citizens at the centre.

The Taoiseach recently announced the establishment of a task force to develop an action plan for the public service. This group has been asked to prepare a comprehensive framework for renewal of the public service which takes account of the analysis and conclusions of the OECD report, as well as the lessons to be drawn from the strategic management initiative, the organisational review programme and the efficiency review process. The task force has been asked to complete its work by the end of the summer. That work will inform the next phase of the modernisation process. I look forward to the report.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The question was whether any of the OECD's recommendations have been ruled in or out. The Minister has not answered the question. Instead of reading the question, the officials who draft the replies simply seem to offer a response to another question.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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The reply was taken from the top shelf.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Ministers and Secretaries General will be loath to agree to a pay settlement linked to performance. The Minister will encourage change in that regard. Will he also encourage change in the Estimates process, which has come under criticism from the OECD and elsewhere? Last week, unfortunately, he indicated that he had no intention of introducing such change. Will the decentralisation programme, which is a crazy undertaking in some of its aspects, be subject to change if it is so recommended?

The manner in which the Department of Finance manages agencies — by controlling staff numbers, grades and pay — has been highly criticised in the OECD report. Is that up for review under the current process? Will there be a review of the way in which quangos are established? As colleagues have pointed out, the establishment of 16 new quangos is envisaged under the Government's legislative programme. Will we see effective change in the way we deliberate on such issues or will this report, like many of its predecessors in the area of public service reform, vanish into history having produced no significant change?

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy asked several questions. First, nothing is ruled in or out on foot of the OECD report. That is the answer to the question tabled. Deputy Bruton is correct that the answer given rather adroitly avoided dealing precisely with that issue.

I prefer to use the word "agencies" rather than "quangos". More than 800 such entities were identified in the report. There is certainly a need to review this number and the scope of their functions, with a view to reform. The Fine Gael Party published a document on this some time ago. I would appreciate if Deputy Bruton were to forward me a list of those bodies he considers should be curtailed, abolished or merged with other agencies. I will take his views into account.

Important considerations arise in regard to the traditional control the Department of Finance has raised over establishments in the public service. It is my considered view that the Department must control the size of those establishments, because that control is an essential weapon in maintaining the control over current expenditure which Deputy Bruton often extols. There is undoubtedly a difficulty in that the requirements on agencies have been more relaxed than those on line Departments, with the result that the latter have sometimes found it difficult to recruit.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The OECD report puts forward the view that our tax take will fall substantially, perhaps to as low as 38% in volume terms and that there must therefore be reform within the Civil Service to obtain better value for money. The necessary changes relate not only to the agencies to which the Minister referred. There is another difficulty in that Departments do not know the numbers of staff in some of the agencies under their remit. For example, the OECD report observed that the Department of Education and Science is not aware of the number of prefabricated buildings in use in schools throughout the State.

Does the Minister intend to take a hands-on approach to ensure that civil servants in the relevant Departments know how many people work in the devolved agencies, how many prefabricated school buildings are in use, how many patients are waiting on trolleys and so on? Does the Minister agree it is a shame to have so many highly paid senior civil servants, some earning more than €250,000 per year, who cannot provide this type of information? How does the Minister propose to manage Civil Service reform?

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I share the concerns outlined in the OECD report. That is why the Government has established a task force to consider what reforms can be introduced on the basis of the conclusions drawn in the report.