Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 43: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the avenues available to citizens and civil society groups into the reform of our public services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35355/11]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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This afternoon I announced a number of key developments in the Government's programme for public service reform including a detailed action oriented Public Service Reform Plan which sets the basis for the comprehensive and strategic reform of the Irish Public Service. This Government knows that all citizens and all stakeholders expect a modern Public Service to continually improve and deliver services faster, better and more cost effectively. Innovation, flexibility and the delivery of streamlined services must be at the heart of a reformed Public Service. Ireland has a long and proud tradition of service to the public and the State, and we must build on that to make it easier for citizens to access services and engage with Government.

The Plan, which was published today and is available on my Department's website, outlines the priority actions for reform in a broad range of areas such as business process improvement, eGovernment, customer service, shared services, procurement, public expenditure reform, etc. and a number of actions in these and other areas are already underway. It also focuses on actions to improve performance by organisations and individuals to ensure greater efficiency, effectiveness and economy.

The Plan sets out how implementation should be driven and monitored including by the establishment of a dedicated Reform and Delivery Office in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We are taking an integrated approach to Public Service Reform which will align a number of key elements including the Programme for Government, the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure, delivery of reform to frontline services within individual sectors, co-ordinated delivery of key cross-cutting reforms and the Public Service Agreement. Consultation with all stakeholders will be an important aspect of our approach to reform. As outlined in today's Government Statement on Public Service Reform, we will improve communications and engagement with customers, by greater utilisation of the Customer Charter initiative, customer satisfaction surveys and other feedback channels.

The Deputy will also wish to be aware that as part of the call for submissions from the public under the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure (CRE), a number of submissions that relate to Public Service Reform were received and these have informed our approach to reform. Additionally a number of submissions were separately received from various reform and change management organisations, some of whom have made tailored presentations to relevant officials. All relevant contributions are being carefully considered in our ongoing work.