Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 193: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the steps that have been taken to address the major deficiencies and waste of resources in the Department as reported in the newspapers on 18 February 2010, the information on which was presented to the Department as far back as September 2009. [9940/10]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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At the request of the Department of Health and Children, a review of the Department was carried out last year under the Organisational Review Programme (ORP). The report was received about four weeks ago – not last September. It will be published, along with similar reports on other Government Offices, following submission to the Government in due course. The report did not identify major deficiencies and waste in the Department. Its principal conclusions include the following:- - The Department of Health and Children is an organisation in transition as a result of the formation of the Health Service Executive (HSE) in 2005, as this event led to substantial changes to the Department's roles and responsibilities. - The health sector is a particularly challenging sector of the public service and the Department regularly has to deal with crises which place it in the media and political spotlight. Looking into the future it is likely that significant resource constraints will add to the challenges faced by the Department. - There is general recognition amongst the Department's agencies and stakeholders that its greatest strengths are the ability and commitment of its staff in dealing with a difficult agenda. The staff have a deep knowledge of the health sector and they are widely praised for the quality of the policies they bring forward.

However, the Department's staff, agencies and stakeholders also recognise that in order to respond to the challenges and address issues of capacity the Department, as a priority, needs to:

- Fully clarify its roles and responsibilities vis-À-vis the HSE, in particular. - Become better at managing the delivery of all its agencies (including the HSE); to do this it needs to become stronger at goal setting, measuring outputs and outcomes, and managing performance so as to ensure the implementation of its policies.

- Define its customer and stakeholder groups clearly and align resources, processes and procedures to serve each one in the most appropriate way and, at the same time, strike an optimal balance in the allocation of resources between competing priorities, including serving the needs of the Ministers and the Oireachtas.

- Improve its human resources capacities in general, and in particular improve its outcomes in terms of morale and analytical capability as well as tackling issues with

- people management

- management of underperformance

- staff allocation

- management of staff mobility.