Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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10. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in respect of his address to Dáil Éireann on expenditure Estimates for 2015, if he will provide further details of the increased autonomy that will be afforded to Departments and agencies to manage their own staffing levels and the way this will work in practice; and when the resumption of Civil Service recruitment will recommence in 2015. [42005/14]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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In his expenditure statement the Minister mentioned the fact that the Civil Service leadership in Departments and agencies would have much more autonomy in recruiting staff. I also note that in the interesting report, Vision One, which was launched recently by the Minister, action 18 also refers to developing the capacity of local managers to develop or recruit their own staff. How is this working out? The Minister mentioned recruitment in 2014. What are the plans for 2015, given the fact that he and the previous Government have presided over the slashing of the public service by something like 10% and the fact that 73% of staff in the Civil Service are aged over 40 years and that only 4% are under 30?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy used pejorative words like "slashing". The bottom line is that if every organisation of State was to do things more effectively and efficiently - which it can do - we would produce much more for less by transforming the way we provide services. I know that the Deputy would not be so backward as to think we could not modernise the Civil Service or that we should stay in a frozen state.

As I announced on budget day last month, I will seek to put in place new arrangements to replace the moratorium on recruitment and promotion in the public service from 2015 onwards. This will be subject to the issuance of formal delegated sanction by my Department to all other Departments and offices in return for agreed commitments by them to manage staff resources within agreed pay ceilings and meet ongoing reform and efficiency objectives. Under the new arrangements which my Department has begun to discuss in detail with the other Departments, sectoral managers will be incentivised to make further savings. Where these are achieved - for example, by recasting the grade mix or reassigning duties or introducing more efficient work practices, all of which are normal ways of doing business - such savings can be reinvested in expanding services to meet increased demand, including hiring more staff, where appropriate. There will be restrictions and controls to prevent unwarranted grade drift and unsustainable recruitment and, of course, recruitment will be carried by the Public Appointments Service in the normal way and open to open competition.

The Deputy will be aware that the moratorium was first introduced as an emergency measure in response to the fiscal crisis that struck the public finances under the last Administration and as a policy instrument, it has made an important contribution on two fronts. First, it has helpedto deliver more than €3 billion in Exchequer pay bill savings, which is a huge contribution to the repairing of the public finances. Second, since 2011 in particular, it has served to help drive reform across the public service, underpinning programmes to introduce new and more efficient ways of delivering public services across the system.

We have produced a number of reform plans with which the Deputy is familiar. It is transforming the way the State deals with citizens, making it much more transparent, open and, I hope, efficient.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

Nonetheless, in the course of framing the second public service reform plan which I launched at the beginning of the year it became clear to me that an emergency measure such as the moratorium was not conducive to long-term, sustainable reform and service provision.It is simply not something that any major organisation can or should wish to sustain over a long period, which is why the new reform plan contained a commitment to introduce more flexibility at the operational level. In the context of the budget, therefore, having regard to our much improved fiscal position which allowed the Government to bring an end to spending cuts, I decided to accelerate implementation of the reform commitment and work towards introducing the new arrangements early next year.

This change in policy is not about giving a blanket sanction for widespread recruitment or promotion across the public service, nor does it signal an end to the efficiency drive that has defined public service reform in the past few years; rather, it is about giving those who are best placed - front-line managers - a degree of freedom in the management of staff resources to meet the demands they face. With this comes responsibility to make the right decisions, continue to implement reform and continue to achieve efficiency gains. That requirement will be reflected in the terms and conditions of the sanction being finalised. As outlined in the reform plan, the policy objective in this change of approach is twofold: to continue to contain the cost of delivering public services at affordable and sustainable levels in the medium term; and to allow the public service to respond and adapt quickly to the needs of the citizen.

Regarding recruitment to the Civil Service, about which the Deputy asks specifically, the Public Appointment Service has begun a number of open competitions, including at clerical and graduate grades. Some more will follow in 2015, with the dual aim of bringing new people and new skills into the public service and addressing any imbalance which may have developed during the operation of the moratorium. The competitions run by the Public Appointment Service are advertised nationally and open to all suitably qualified candidates.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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In respect of local management, will the professional expertise of recruits be an outstanding aspect of how local managers will manage? I note that the report, Vision One, refers to the available talent pool, heads of profession and developing the ICT, legal, economics and statistical cadres within and across Departments. What flexibility will a local manager have in this respect? The Minister talks about open recruitment to fill all positions. Does this also apply to private secretaries to Ministers? Is every single position open to all recruits? I note that that there will be a new code of conduct for political appointees in Ministers' offices.

On performance assessment, has the Minister settled on a modern, international set of measurements which can be applied fairly across the Civil Service and will give us a high performing Civil Service? It must be said the Civil Service was usually ranked very high in the OECD rankings throughout the noughties and up until very recently. It was in the top five, or certainly the top ten.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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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.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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Has the Minister investigated new, and perhaps simple, methodologies for assessing the performance of managers and leaders in the Civil Service? Is recruitment in respect of the private sector completely open?

The right-wing media, which is often hostile to civil servants and the public service in general, often has a field day running down our Civil Service. Who will now speak for the Civil Service? The Minister decided against appointing a head of the Civil Service but it appears that the Secretary General at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr. Watt, will effectively become the spokesman for the entire 35,000 staff. Is that the case? I note that the management board will be chaired by the Secretary General at the Department of the Taoiseach. In the context of Irish Water and other public companies, it is striking in the public sector that communications people rather than the chief executive are sent out to explain. We have all been looking for the chief executive of Irish Water but I have not seen him since was manager of Dublin City Council. Who will speak for the Civil Service?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy's questions underscore the point I made earlier to Deputy McDonald on the need for a more structured debate on this exciting set of reforms, which will be transformative for the Civil Service.

In regard to a spokesperson for the Civil Service, it has been determined that the Secretary General of my Department will be the official spokesperson for the Civil Service. We need somebody to argue and listen to criticisms on behalf of the Civil Service, as opposed to Ministers performing those tasks. In regard to the management board, one of the major deficiencies in the Civil Service is that it is not sufficiently integrated. One of the objectives of the new reform plan is to develop a more integrated Civil Service so that people do not think in terms of silos. If a manager cedes personnel or functions to another Department, that should not be seen as a weakening of his or her position but as a shared assessment of how services can be improved or particular problems addressed. In terms of assessments, for the first time objective criteria will be developed for assessing performance against the stated objectives of Secretaries General. This exercise will be carried out by a board chaired by the Taoiseach and will involve myself and other Ministers, a number of Secretaries General and external experts from business. All of this will be put in place in the coming weeks.

Clearly we need a broader debate on these issues but I am excited about the potential for a real transformation and, more important, by the engagement of 2,000 civil servants in the process over the last year. There is an appetite to embrace change and to do things better, and the objective of having one of the best civil and public services in the world is within our grasp.