Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 61: To ask the Taoiseach the progress made to date on the programme of work set out in Transforming Public Services; the date the Annual Report on the State of the Public Services will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35235/09]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Last November, I launched the Government Statement on Transforming Public Services, which sets out an ambitious programme of renewal for the entire Public Service. TPS represents the blueprint for a new type of unified public service, focused on common goals, with greater cooperation and reduced boundaries between sectors, organisations and professions, with a much greater integration of services around user needs and far greater efficiency in internal data sharing and administration through shared service models.

The programme is designed to address the immediate priority of securing maximum value for public spending and laying the foundation for a complete overhaul of how the Public Service is managed and does its business, to ensure that it is efficient and effective in meeting the needs of citizens. The TPS agenda is necessarily very broad and encompasses the whole of the Public Service - the health sector, the education sector, the Civil Service, non-commercial State-sponsored bodies, local authorities and regional bodies, the Gardaí and the Defence Forces.

Implementation of the change programme is being overseen by the Cabinet Committee on Transforming Public Services, which I chair. The work of the Cabinet Committee is being supported by a Steering Group of Secretaries General and the TPS Programme Office, which is based in my Department. Progress has been made in a number of areas to date:

The Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes has finalised its work. Its report was published last July and its recommendations are under consideration in the context of the Estimates;

An eGovernment Policy Unit has been established within the Department of Finance on foot of responsibility for eGovernment policy and central operations being consolidated in that Department;

Significant savings can be realised from the improved professionalisation of procurement and, to this end, the new National Public Procurement Operations Unit has been established within the Office of Public Works. This Unit is working to leverage the Public Service's buying power by organising procurement across the Public Service of common goods and services. It is envisaged that the Unit will achieve savings from a combination of price reductions, administrative efficiencies and demand management;

Work is ongoing in developing specific proposals in the area of shared services on the basis that there are potential savings associated with such initiatives. Groups of senior officials have been established to advance shared services in both the HR and financial shared services area and these Groups presented initial reports to the Cabinet Committee on Transforming Public Services in July. On foot of these reports, shared services projects are being progressed in a number of sectors;

The Organisational Review Programme (ORP) has been extended so that all Government Departments and major Offices will be reviewed within the next three years. Four organisations are being reviewed this year - the Department of Health and Children, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the Central Statistics Office and the Property Registration Authority (PRA). The fieldwork on the review of the PRA has been completed, is in the final stages in the cases of the CSO and the Department of Health and Children, and has commenced in Revenue. The reviews are due to be published around the end of the year and will be accompanied by follow-up action plans on the key findings prepared by each of the four organisations;

A new round of Value for Money Reviews was approved by Government in late 2008. Reviews, under the new arrangements for the Value for Money and Policy Review Initiative, are underway or due to commence in 12 Departments for completion by end 2009. These Reviews focus on evaluations of significant areas of expenditure and major policy issues with a focus on Health, Education, Social Welfare and Justice sectors. They ensure that programmes are delivering outcomes in line with expectations and identify appropriate policy responses where they are not;

Work is underway in relation to the development of new performance and governance frameworks for State Agencies, and the greater use of Service Level Agreements in this context;

Work has also commenced on some of the numerous commitments in relation to improving customer focus. A group of senior officials is currently examining the feasibility of introducing a single point of telephone contact service and is developing a fully costed business plan to support this work. A group has also been established to determine the feasibility and value of mechanisms to simplify the provision of means information by citizens to public bodies;

These measures are in parallel to projects and initiatives previously established under the Quality Customer Service Initiative. The objective of this Initiative has been to enhance the citizen's experience in their interaction with the Public Service. Central to this objective is the Customer Charter initiative, under which organisations consult with their customers, set targets, measure progress and report publicly on the results. As recommended in TPS, the Charter process is now in the process of being strengthened and extended throughout the Public Service so as to ensure a consistent and quality standard of service whether, for example, from a Government Department, a Local Authority or a Garda Station; and

The exchange of best practice across the Public Service is also being facilitated through the Public Service Excellence Awards. These Awards, for which entries are currently being sought, recognise examples of excellence in administration and customer service. My Department is also undertaking satisfaction surveys of Civil Service customers. The results of these surveys, of citizens and businesses, should be available by the end of the year.

A number of priority actions from TPS, such as the redeployment of staff to areas of highest priority and extending individual performance management systems across the Public Service, are the subject of discussions with the Public Service unions at present. TPS also provides for the publication of the first Annual Report on the State of the Public Service. This Report will outline progress on leading change in each of the sectors and the extent to which the integration objective is being addressed across the Service as a whole. It will also allow for an assessment to be made of capacity issues and the manner in which they are being addressed. It is expected that this Report will be published by the end of the year.

In addition, in the Renewed Programme for Government, the Government has set out a number of specific actions to be implemented under the transformation programme. These actions relate to performance measurement and reward, performance related pay in the Public Service, the more integrated Public Service, hiring and promotion criteria, the Top Level Appointments Commission and appointments to senior positions, the Code of Conduct for Civil Servants, and State agencies.