Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. The shared services office, once established, will have significant power in issuing public procurement contracts. It is vital that those who spend public funds, in whatever manner, are answerable to the Oireachtas, not just the Minister. Public trust in public institutions is at an all-time low. Either we recognise this and work to build it up again or we abdicate our responsibilities as legislators and feed the apathy.

The Government had initially excluded this new office from the scrutiny of the Committee of Public Accounts. This was unacceptable to Sinn Féin and my colleague, Deputy David Cullinane, tabled a number of amendments to address the issue. Some of those amendments were accepted and the national shared services office, once established, will be fully accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts. However, other amendments which would have provided for the pay of board members being subject to review by the finance committee, as well as oversight of consultants' fees, were rejected by the Government. There have been too many scandals involving pay and allowances above and beyond ministerial guidelines simply to ignore the issue. Unfortunately, the Government rejected these amendments on Report Stage as well. This was a set back in terms of public oversight of public funds and contracts. Overall, there must be more openness and transparency in our public sector and Sinn Féin will continue to work towards that goal.

Sinn Féin recognises that having shared services does not mean a concentration of services in one office, but falls into the overall principle of improved analysis and service. Departments are operating in silos, of which we all have had experience. We often hear words such as "cross-cutting" and "interdepartmental" used, which are often just a cover for the fact that Departments are operating in silos in shared services and policy terms. I agree that it is important to move away from the silo mentality to a much greater sharing of services to achieve efficiencies.

International studies tend to show there are five attributes of shared services. They comprise distinct governance, namely, a distinct organisational structure with a dedicated management team delivering the operational aspects of corporate services for one or more organisations; standard processes, which is where processes are standardised and streamlined; economies of scale, which means scale is achieved through combining processes previously executed independently; customer driven, whereby a culture of service delivery is ingrained within the shared services centre; resources committed to key account management, monitoring key performance indicators and the achievement of service level agreements. There is also continuous process improvement, with dedicated project teams managing process change to drive improvements in both efficiency and levels of service.

These are all fine objectives and hard to argue against, especially in a large public service which covers different Departments and large expenditure which could potentially lead to duplication. On the proposed office, its function is to enter into contracts for the procurement of goods and services required for the provision of shared services. The Government intends to give the office all such powers as are necessary or expedient for the performance of its functions and that the office shall be independent in the performance of its functions. The Bill will allow the shared services office to enter into agreements with public service bodies and draw up the terms and conditions on which shared services are to be provided for these bodies. It will make payments to, and communicate with, persons on behalf of public service bodies for the purposes of providing shared services. It will receive and process personal data provided to it by public service bodies for the purpose of carrying out its functions. It will develop and implement policies on the manner in which shared services are to be provided. It will provide guidance, where appropriate, in the public sector on the provision of services comparable to shared services.

That is quite a transfer of power to an independent body. The areas of responsibility which will be transferred cover employment contracts, wages, pensions and financial accounts. The office will cover 40 public bodies. That means a great deal of sensitive data will be put out to tender. This has to be a concern, especially the information on personnel within the legal and judicial system. It was for these reasons that Sinn Féin tabled amendments to strengthen the public oversight of the office.