Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I join in welcoming the Minister of State to the House. I am pleased to have the opportunity to make some points on the OECD report on public service reform. I will begin with the normal rebuttal of Senator Twomey, which is customary between us. He might have more time to talk about the solutions if he were to begin with them rather than the perpetual moan. His colleagues in Wexford will not complain about the land bank IDA Ireland held there given this week's announcement of Coca-Cola establishing a facility there. The decentralisation of Zurich Insurance, formerly Eagle Star, to Wexford is also facilitated with the help of a land bank that was held either by Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland.

I would like us to focus more consistently on tangible solutions and suggestions we might undertake to pass on to our colleagues around the Cabinet table so they can integrate them into their views and plans for the reform of the public service. Over the years Fianna Fáil in Government has been consistently willing to reform the public service and, contrary to Senator Twomey's view, has always tried to undertake and add in a way that helps to modernise the public service. As the Taoiseach and his predecessor, Deputy Bertie Ahern, have undertaken to do, there is a need for continued modernisation. As a result we requested the OECD to prepare the report.

The findings of the report are interesting. The Irish public service is on a sound path to modernisation, as the Minister said, and has "played a central role in ensuring that the right economic, regulatory, educational and social conditions are in place to facilitate growth and development". We are in a changed set of circumstances and I look forward to a debate on the economy next week when we can get into the detail of that. The banks are being questioned on it by the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service and perhaps we can debate the report from that committee in due course.

General Government employment is relatively low in Ireland among OECD countries. That might surprise many people. It is also among the cheapest in terms of the overall cost, given our population. Only Korea and Mexico are cheaper. This figure has decreased over the past ten years. Compared to other OECD countries, Ireland has been able to deliver public services with a relatively small public sector, given the size of the economy and labour force. That is significant. While the Irish public service has created structures and systems to ensure co-operation and co-ordination, it, according to the report, "remains segmented overall, leading to sub-optimal coherence in policy development, implementation and service delivery". These are the kind of issues we must take on board.

According to the OECD report, "the major challenge for the public service is to improve service quality through timely, user-focused and integrated public services". The Minister mentioned many of the key recommendations of the report, but I will focus on some. One is the focus on citizens and societal goals, which is close to my heart. According to the report, "the Irish public service needs to become more outward focused . . . so that it is best placed to more effectively contribute . . . to the identification and attainment of overall societal goals" alongside citizens, business and other actors. It goes on to state that, "In a changing, more complex . . . dynamic and educated society, greater focus needs to be placed by the Irish public service on citizens and their expectations, and on targeting delivery of services from their perspective".

If the public service is to maximise its contribution to meeting citizens' expectations and to achieving broader societal objectives, it needs to think as a more integrated system. According to the report, "achieving an integrated public service will require targeted actions in a number of areas". The first of these is better communication. According to the report, "Improved dialogue is needed to address fragmentation and disconnects between Departments, their offices and agencies, and other public service actors". The Minister mentioned this. We need a better interdepartmental approach, a cross-departmental approach, so communication can improve efficiencies and ensure we are taking the right decisions at the right times, consistent with broader Government policies and policies of other Departments. I recently attended a meeting involving the Higher Education Authority where a particular situation could not be investigated because it fell under the remit of National Qualifications Authority of Ireland. The problem of making a connection in this area created a serious difficulty in getting an answer to the question. One of the major reforms we must undertake is to connect the many boxes that exist within the various Departments throughout our political system as well as to improve dialogue. A more cross-departmental approach will achieve this. We need managing for performance rather than performance reporting. Realistic expectations of performance need to be developed within organisations and additional managerial discretion is also required. Increased flexibility is needed to achieve these goals.

On leadership, in terms of achieving our goals, supporting and driving a renewed reform agenda and moving towards a more integrated public service will require significant leadership from senior management who have a detailed understanding of the broad range of issues and challenges unique to the public service. If new ways of working are to be successfully implemented, a strong central leadership role is required.

In terms of the concept of a senior public service, the development on a phased basis of a single, integrated public service leadership with a membership drawn from elements of the broader public service is an interesting concept and perhaps would allow Ireland to strengthen a system-wide perspective at the leadership level and reinforce and develop skill sets among the senior cohort of the public service as well as deepen coherence within the system.

Membership of the senior public service should not be limited to the Civil Service so as to have a broader perspective on the public service as a whole. I do not propose that this should be a whole new set that would require a ridiculous increase in the level of resources. We should do it from existing budgets through a reorganisation plan. Obviously, this will have to be negotiated with the various unions but it is a good concept and one that could be achieved. I am not suggesting we would create another echelon of new staff which would seriously contribute to additional expense. We want to get away from that.

With regard to managing agencies, a performance dialogue between Departments and agencies is needed, as alluded to by Senator Twomey. This would entail a process of setting different types of targets and evaluations and making links between inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes.

In terms of the general Government response, the Taoiseach set up the task force on the public service, half the membership of which came from the private sector and half from the Secretaries General of various Departments, under the chairmanship of Dermot McCarthy, Secretary General to the Government, whose reputation and experience speaks for itself. The terms of reference given to the task force for consideration were for a comprehensive framework for renewal of the public service and it will report towards the end of the summer.

There is broad cross-departmental and cross-party support for reform of the public service. We can all be justifiably proud of the work our public service and Civil Service have done in the past decades. However, it is time for reform and improvements in efficiency. This will require leadership across the board, not just from the political establishment but also from within the Civil Service and public service. I very much hope that, through negotiation, we can achieve the optimum results which would take this country forward in a way the existing Civil Service has done so successfully in the decades of the past.

I look forward with interest to the report of the task force which is expected before the end of the summer. I hope we can all get behind the action plan it comes up with, put our shoulders to the wheel and move forward in the interest of a more streamlined, efficient public service which will be best placed to continue in the way it has over many decades. While it was a great system which served us well, we need a newer, more effective system based on the OECD report and the action plan which we expect from the task force in due course. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and the Leader for facilitating a debate on this issue.