Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for their presence. This is a relatively short technical Bill that amends the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004. Its aim is to remove the legislative barriers to redeployment and overall mobility within the public service and to address other issues that arise on changing employer. If passed, it will facilitate greater movement across the broader public service and into and out of non-commercial State bodies. This is vital in the current context, where the redeployment of surpluses in one organisation to meet deficits in another is likely to continue for some time as we seek to maximise the existing resources within the public service.

I am also taking the opportunity of the passage of the Bill to remove a provision in the 2004 Act. At present the Act provides for an exemption in relation to appointments recommended by the Top Level Appointments Committee, TLAC, following competitions confined to certain civil servants. The rationale for the exemption was that Civil Service candidates for senior posts had already been subjected to a recruitment and selection process that had been regulated by the Commission for Public Service Appointments, CPSA. As a result of the extension of TLAC to candidates from outside of the Civil Service since 2007, the exemption no longer applies. As open competitions are now the norm and TLAC appointments are subject to the provisions of the Act, I have taken the opportunity to reflect the new reality in the legislation by deleting the exemption.

The Bill is being read here today in the context of a clear vision for the public service for the future. It will be a public service that is better integrated and more responsive to an ever-changing environment, with a focus on the needs of citizens and business customers and on the need to deliver value for money. It will be more open and accountable in how it spends taxpayers' money and in decision-making.

Significant progress is being made in achieving the vision and implementing a programme of reform with a scale and ambition unprecedented in the State. The very difficult fiscal position and increased demands on services is driving the reform agenda. We must continue the process of meeting the five major commitments in our public service reform plan that we published in November 2011 as follows: placing the customer or citizen at the core of everything that we do; maximising new and innovative service delivery channels; radically reducing costs to drive better value for money; leading, organising and working in new ways; and a strong focus on implementation and delivery.

The ability to move and redeploy staff from one post to another, and from one organisation to another, is an integral part of delivering on the reform programme and in supporting a more fit-for-purpose public administration. Redeployment and mobility will be required on an ongoing basis to meet demands for staff to support priority programmes and schemes from within existing public service resources. At present, definitive redeployment from one sector of the public service to another is not legally possible. Secondment arrangements are used pending the enactment of appropriate legislation. This is the purpose of the Bill. It intends to provide certainty of assignment for those on secondment and for those who will move in the future. It will also provide certainty for the sending and receiving organisations involved in the redeployment process regarding their staffing assignments.

The public service across Europe is operating in an environment of reduced resources and staff numbers. Renewing public service capacity is a key challenge for our European neighbours, as well as for us, as the pace and scope of reform places extra demands on public administrations. The demand and supply pressures require more specialist skills and competencies in key strategic areas, including procurement, ICT, and change management.

The demand and supply pressures require more specialist skills and competencies in key strategic areas, including procurement, ICT and change management.

One of the key instruments in addressing the staffing capacity challenge as we move towards a more fit-for-purpose administration is the adoption of a strategic workforce planning approach. It is vital that this approach is embedded as a core element of the business planning process. Workforce planning can be a powerful management tool and is most effective when integrated within a Department's strategy and budgetary processes in a way that supports strategic decisions made by managers. A key enabler of this is the design of an appropriate workforce planning process to ensure that the right staff are in the right place, at the right time. Cross-sectoral mobility is intended to support this objective and the passage of this Bill is required to facilitate definitive cross-sectoral transfers.

My Department is responsible for the roll-out of workforce planning across the Civil Service. The first iterations of the workforce plans were submitted last year and Departments are currently preparing the next iteration based on the feedback provided. This will allow a more consistent approach to be adopted right across the public service. It will also support central monitoring, as well as playing a key part in the provision of robust and timely information to decision makers. This, in turn, will enable service-wide analyses of staffing supply and demand as part of ongoing Civil Service resourcing.

Redeployment and mobility are not merely aspirational values to be achieved as part of some future public service. In the past the Croke Park agreement has been an enabler of the public service reform plan and has played a strong part in underpinning many of the changes we are making in the public service. It has provided an unprecedented opportunity to achieve changes in an atmosphere of stable industrial relations and co-operation.

For the first time, the Croke Park agreement provided a basis for movement within the Civil Service, the health services and local authority and education sectors and, where internal redeployment is not possible, between these bodies and non-commercial semi-State bodies. These arrangements have played a key role in the reassignment of over 10,000 staff at this stage - it is remarkable to think that 10,000 staff have moved in the past couple of years - and were reaffirmed under the new Haddington Road proposals currently being voted upon. Redeployment will continue to facilitate flexibility and ensure that we can make the best use of staff resources by moving staff from areas where there is surplus capacity to areas of greater need.

I have noted in this House previously that there has been a substantial ask of public servants under the Croke Park agreement and in the context of the Haddington Road discussions. I have spoken in recent debates in this Chamber about the reason that was, and remains, necessary. I have also acknowledged, both in those debates and elsewhere, that public servants have contributed significantly to addressing the current fiscal and economic challenges through the pension levy imposed in 2009, a pay reduction imposed in 2010 and through other measures, including head count reductions, reduced salary rates for new entrants and reductions in pension payments to pensioners.

As part of the negotiation process that has resulted in these outcomes, the Government has agreed that compulsory redundancy will not apply to public servants, subject to the agreed flexibility on redeployment being delivered. The passage of this Bill will allow definitive cross-sectoral redeployments to be made and in doing so will enable the Government to meet part of its commitments, both under the existing Croke Park agreement and, hopefully, the newly-to-be-agreed Haddington Road.

I will briefly go through the sections of the Bill and give a brief outline of their content and purpose. Section 1 defines the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004 as the principal Act. Section 2 defines a "public service body" for the purposes of the redeployment function, which is assigned to the Public Appointments Service, PAS, under sections 4, 5 and 6, to include all public service employers except commercial State bodies and their subsidiaries. Section 3 removes the existing exemption I just indicated, under section 7(2)(a), from the general provisions of the principal Act in respect of the Top Level Appointments Committee, TLAC, appointments, bringing these within the ambit of the Act.

Sections 4, 5 and 6 provide for the insertion of a new section 34A and a new Part 6A, which comprises sections 57A to 57F, inclusive, into the principal Act. Section 34A provides that the Public Appointments Service shall have the functions set out in Part 6A.

Section 57A provides that a person designated by the PAS for redeployment to a position in another public service body shall be appointed to that position. Section 57B enables the PAS to designate a public service employee for redeployment to a comparable position elsewhere in the public service. A person on a fixed-term contract may be redeployed for the period remaining on his or her contract. The assignment of this role to the PAS is fully consistent with its current statutory role as the main recruiter for the public service and also with its role in operating the existing redeployment arrangements for transfers between public service bodies under the existing Croke Park agreement over the past few years.

Section 57C provides that redeployment is to be on no less favourable conditions of basic pay - defined in section 57A - and pension, except in relation to fast accrual arrangements. It will provide certainty for the individual being redeployed in two ways: first, it provides for the transfer of the responsibility to meet the redeployee's superannuation liabilities to the receiving organisation; and, second, it provides for the preservation of various statutory rights of the redeployee that are linked to length of service. These include rights accruing under the Redundancy Acts, Unfair Dismissal Act, Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973 and the Parental Leave Act. Section 57C also provides that those assigned to the Civil Service will be subject to the Civil Service Regulation Acts and the Ethics in Public Office Acts.

Section 57D sets out the factors to be considered by the Public Appointments Service when designating a person for redeployment. These are the competencies, qualifications, grading and pay rates of the person being redeployed and those required in the post to which the person is being redeployed; the terms of any policy of the Minister, or collective agreement, relating to the mobility or redeployment of public service employees; and the methods of recruitment and selection applying to public servants generally.

Section 57E sets out details of those who are precluded from redeployment by the PAS. These are holders of political, judicial and constitutional posts, presidential and Government appointees, as well as special advisers, members of the Permanent Defence Force, officers of the Houses of the Oireachtas and those employed by the Central Bank of Ireland and the National Treasury Management Agency. This section also provides that the Minister may, by order, add further bodies to this list.

Section 57F removes any impediments under the Data Protection Act 1988 to the transfer of personal information to the PAS, or to another public service body, for the purpose of redeployment to that body.

Section 7 corrects Schedule 2 of the principal Act to reflect the fact that there is no section 14(4) in the Aviation Regulation Act 2001 and the Schedule should refer instead to section 11(4) of that Act. Section 8 inserts an additional schedule to the principal Act to list the commercial State bodies which are excluded from the definition of "public service body". Section 9 is a standard provision providing for a Short Title, and for commencement on a day to be appointed by the Minister, by order.

I am asking the House to support this short, limited but important Bill as part of the reform agenda under way in my Department.