Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

There has already been mention of public sector reform. I welcome the announcement to be made by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance today. Hopefully, it will chart a way forward towards improving cost effectiveness and efficiency throughout the public service. The announcement is predicated on the OECD report, but many people were disappointed with that report and the lack of impetus in it to achieve real reform of the public service. We need a culture change at middle management level in the public service so that those at that level see management of human and financial resources as a significant part of their role. In that way we maximise the potential of people and get best value for money. It would be good to have a debate focused on this area.

There has been much mention of FÁS in the House. I have some sympathy for the former director general, Rody Molloy. I do not condone the expenses culture within the organisation, but it is only symptomatic of what is happening across the public service where people are entitled to travel first class or business class. Why is this? I worked in the private sector for many years and in that time I do not remember ever travelling business class. I went abroad a number of times and travelled economy class. I would choose to travel economy because the astronomical cost of business or first class is not justified. We need to change the culture and this is just one example of an area where we can effect economies.

I worked with people in large public companies with the clear cut policy of travelling economy class unless travelling long distance with an important business meeting on arrival. In such cases people need to arrive in good shape to be at their best for their meeting. Those companies had a common-sense approach to travel. We need to inject this attitude across the range of public sector activity. Many people in the public sector would welcome this because they want to be part of a dynamic organisation. I hope all sides will support the efforts of the Taoiseach — who has been strong on this over the past 12 months — and the Minister for Finance who have the responsibility to ensure the implementation of cost-effective measures.

I hope the public service unions will rise to the game. They have not done so to date, unlike their counterparts. Some of the unions straddle the public and private sector. In the private sector in the 1970s and 1980s, there was a complete sea change in thinking by senior personnel and those in the unions because they realised the job security of their members was at stake unless they had flexibility, productivity and a modern approach to running businesses. We need that in the public service. Nobody need have fears in that regard, except those in the service who never intended to do the work in the first place.