Alex White (Labour)

There is a clear necessity for a rigorous analysis of the public service. I have no difficulty with this and welcome the initiative that led to the production of the ORP reports. While I have not read them in detail, I can see their analysis of the problems and recommendations arising therefrom.

I am sure the Minister of State will not take it as a personal criticism because he knows me well enough, but he did little more than tell us what had occurred in the organisational review programme and the reasons for it. There is nothing wrong with what he said about these issues, nothing I can criticise. He gave the House an account of the two tranches of the published reports and told us what the programme was to promote. He also treated the research methodology employed in the reports. No criticism can be made of what he said about any of these matters, as there must be a methodology and with my untutored eye I can see nothing wrong with the one employed. I reiterate that I do not offer this as a personal criticism of the Minister of State, but only towards the end of his contribution did he mention the report that has been exercising most people since its publication recently. It deals with the areas mentioned by Senator Ormonde, in particular the Department of Health and Children. There is a need for us to be frank about what is happening, as Senator Ormonde was. She might even have gone further, but the Minister of State did not-----