Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and thank him for taking this Commencement matter. It is appreciated.

Many good people work in local authorities. They are very proud to work in them and they give great service to the State. When negative comments are made, either in these Houses or elsewhere, about local authorities and public servants and what they do, it tarnishes all those who work in the public service. I have spoken to a number of people working at different levels in local authorities across the country seeking their views on what the Government can do to support them. I will set out essentially what they came back to me with.

Difficult workers exist and that is as true in the private sector as it is in the public sector. The difficulty in local authorities is that it is extremely difficult to sanction an employee. The disciplinary procedure is so cumbersome and ineffective that it is only used in the most clear-cut cases such as those involving gross misconduct.What are much more common are the ongoing and more difficult-to-detect issues, such as those associated with bullying behaviour, disrupters, leaders who lead in a very negative way, manipulators and general underperformance. It is no secret that many of the most difficult employees in local authorities receive a great deal of support from their unions. Unions have their purposes but one of those should be to work with HR departments to tackle bullying, underperformance and other behaviours that undermine the efforts to deliver effective and efficient local authority services. Their role should not be to defend cases of bullying and underperformance because that affects those who make a complaint because they feel they have been bullied or that there has been underperformance.

These issues can continue generally unchecked. When other workers see the behaviours in question are allowed, it affects morale and performance across the board. It is the responsibility of the line managers, in the first instance, to address these issues, but most line managers now know that this is a waste of time, that they are unlikely to get any support from HR and that if they do manage to get a warning added to someone’s record, it is removed within 12 months. Most of the really troublesome individuals are discreet in their actions and smart enough to navigate the disciplinary procedure.

I have many examples of where managers have not been able to do anything. The likely outcome of their actions is arrival of a mediator a few weeks later. They go through the motions and, a few months later, nothing has changed.

A simple thing that could be done but which the unions would probably be against and would not like would be to allow line managers to move staff within their organisation. This would give some control back. The very threat of being moved would be significantly effective.

HR departments have a very difficult job. I know of cases where they put in an awful lot of effort with intent to dismiss only for the employee’s legal representatives to pick holes in some procedural inconsistencies between one local authority and another, the result being that the cases ultimately got dropped. This is exceedingly demoralising for HR departments.

I see merit in a central HR task force whose role would be to monitor the performance of HR departments nationwide and tackle, at national level, roadblocks to progress, such as unions supporting people who have been accused of bullying or of not performing well. It would also take the most difficult cases from local authority HR departments. Many of the staff in the HR sections of local authorities know the individuals they are dealing with very well. It is extremely difficult for the HR staff to manage these cases at local level. Legal professionals could be part of the task force, their function being to offer HR-specific legal advice to local authorities.

These are requests from people in local authorities who are demoralised because they are being lumped in with people who are underperforming. It is very unfair. The Government needs to be able to support those who are performing so they can have a good profession in the service they like.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Ahearn for raising this important issue and for his support for our local authorities. He rightly pointed out the great work they have done throughout the pandemic. It was a privilege to be in Tipperary County Council with the Senator to meet the management team and staff and note the vital work he is supporting in Tipperary to unlock the potential in many of its towns. Against the backdrop of the restart grants and outdoor spaces schemes to respond to the pandemic, in addition to the Community Call to protect the most vulnerable, the councils have done significant work. I thank the Senator for acknowledging and supporting it.

It is important to note that, under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, the chief executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority. Each local authority is an independent legal entity that acts as the legal employer of staff, and each will have its own HR department dealing with recruitment, performance, training, industrial relations and so on.

Under Building Momentum, the local authority sector has committed to moving continuously towards the greater use of shared and common services. This shared usage, to which the Senator was referring, is important. The local authorities already employ a shared services model to deliver payroll and superannuation payments for the local government sector. This shared service, known as MyPay, is located in Portlaoise and constitutes a business unit of Laois County Council, which acts as the lead authority on behalf of the sector. MyPay currently employs 84 persons to perform its shared services function. From its establishment to the end of 2021, it made payments totalling more than €5 billion.

While certain functions lend themselves to greater efficiencies, as the Senator has pointed out, it is clear that a local authority is best placed to manage its own staff and already has the necessary procedures and policies in place to do so in line with best practice across the public service. However, as the Senator also said, we must have a shared goal in this area.

Regarding performance, the local authority sector operates a performance management and development system, PMDS. This system involves an ongoing process of communication between a supervisor and an employee throughout the year, in support of accomplishing the strategic objectives of an organisation. The PMDS provides staff with clear objectives for their jobs and plenty of opportunities for feedback and discussion with their supervisor. The system also has a provision for dealing with underperformance should this arise, including individual performance improvement plans and a link to the disciplinary procedure if there is a failure to improve over time.

In addition, local authorities have customer service charters outlining their commitment to providing high-quality customer services and customer-service action plans outlining standards for monitoring and improving customer service. A people strategy is also in place for the local authority sector. It aims to enable and empower a motivated, committed workforce to provide quality services to citizens.

Chief executives are responsible for staffing matters in local authorities and are supported in this role by the Local Government Management Agency, which provides expert advice on the full range of human resource issues. I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. There will always be scope for improvement in the provision of shared services and how we respond to the needs and demands of our citizens and community in delivering those services through our local authorities.

Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. He is correct that the work of the staff of Tipperary County Council during the pandemic has been phenomenal. They are very much to be credited for that.

The Minister of State made the good point that local authorities already have shared services. My argument is that what I propose should be part of these. If you ask chief executives privately, they will tell you they do not want to be dealing with the sorts of staffing issues in question. They are best placed to understand them but that does not necessarily mean they are best placed to solve them. What we need is a system whereby people who underperform do not take it for granted that just because they are in a local authority, they are certain to be working in it for 40 years. That is the problem we have. There is an assumption among the public that people who work for a local authority are there for life, no matter what they do. Ninety-nine percent of people who work for a local authority are doing so because they believe in what they do and want to serve the public, but a small percentage, who are not held to account and who do not live up to those standards, are affecting every good, decent local authority employee. It is not good enough that we have representatives in this House and elsewhere who just stand up and say local authorities are absolutely hopeless. We need a system in place so the brilliant people who work in local authorities are not held back by a small number who are not held to account. I recognise there is a system in place to deal with the latter but it is not really effective. The Minister of State has been in local government and politics long enough to know we all know of people who have not been dealt with.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Again, I thank Senator Ahearn for his support for local authorities and for raising this important issue. A legacy of benchmarking was that every citizen who worked for a local authority or agency of the State got incremental rises that were not directly linked to productivity. That legacy has been tackled only in recent years, whereby the progressive social agreements with the Government have really built in productivity. On the Senator’s general point, on dealing with disciplinary issues and ensuring everyone gets the opportunity and support to excel in delivering services to citizens, I absolutely see merit in his proposal. I will raise the matter again with the Department and revert to the Senator on it.

Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail)
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I thank all the Senators and Ministers of State who have been with us this morning. I also thank the staff.

It is lovely to see young people here, during their mid-term break, to hear part of our debate this morning. They are very welcome. I believe I know who they are. I hope they enjoy the rest of their day.