Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and this opportunity to do some thinking on the new organisational review programme. I also welcome the review, although I was not familiar with it until it was put on the agenda and I began reading about it.

This discussion is timely. Given the major national economic and social challenges, it is more important than ever for Departments and Government offices to strengthen their capacities and consider how their performance should be rated. Leadership and customer service are the key areas in any organisation. They must also consider how to modernise the public service. While there is undoubtedly a culture of excellence within the Civil Service, a laziness has set in among us all during the past ten years. There was so much money in our country that could be thrown at a problem instead of examining the fundamental changes to be made that the ethos of excellence slipped.

I must give the Civil Service ten out of ten. It is an excellent body of people. The brains of the country are in the civil and public service.