Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 111: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress being made in public service reform; the way he is ensuring that when positions are being eliminated all grades of public service are equally affected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38588/11]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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On 17 November, I announced several key developments relating to Public Service Reform and published the Government's Public Service Reform Plan which sets the basis for the comprehensive and strategic reform of the Public Service in the coming years. The challenging fiscal position which we face means that far-reaching reform of the Public Service is essential in order to ensure it is customer-focused, leaner, more efficient, better integrated and delivering maximum value for money.

This Government has already shown that reform must be led from the top through a whole range of measures. We have reduced the pay of the Taoiseach and Ministers; reformed Ministerial transport arrangements; changed the composition of TLAC to include an external Chair and more external members; introduced new pay ceilings for senior public servants; changed the TLAC terms that apply to Secretaries General on retirement; reduced the number of Oireachtas Committees; and published legislation to significantly reduce future Public Service pensions costs, to name just some areas. There have also been significant reforms under the Croke Park Agreement, as set out in the recently published summary of progress which is available on the Implementation Body's website.

Of course, we need to do much more and the Public Service Reform Plan outlines the priority actions and timelines for reform in a broad range of areas such as public service numbers, e-Government, customer service, shared services, procurement, business process improvement, public expenditure reform, agency rationalisation and so on. The Plan particularly focuses on actions to improve performance by organisations and individuals in order to ensure greater efficiency, effectiveness and economy.

It is planned to have 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 front line services within individual sectors which is ongoing, co-ordinated delivery of the cross-cutting reforms in the Reform Plan, and the Public Service Agreement.

Importantly, the Reform Plan sets out how implementation should be driven and monitored, including by the Reform and Delivery Office which I have established in my Department to facilitate, drive and support the reform programme. The Office is being led by a recently appointed Programme Director who has experience of implementing large scale restructuring in the private sector. This Office will work closely with organisations across the Public Service with a view to enabling them to drive the delivery of reform at a local level, as well as lead on certain cross-cutting reforms.

In terms of the latter part of this Question, a central element of the Reform Plan is the preservation of critical front line services in tandem with a very significant reduction in Public Service numbers over the coming years. There will be a further reduction of 23,500 in Public Service numbers by 2015 (from end 2010 levels).

In this context, the moratorium on public service recruitment and promotion applies to the entire Public Service, with certain specific exemptions in the Health and Education sectors. The only other reason for making exceptions to the moratorium is on the basis of the business case in respect of the particular situation or post, and this in turn depends firstly on the incidence of vacancies arising and secondly on the assessment by local management of what posts are most critical at any particular point in time.

As outlined in the Reform Plan, both central and sectoral Manpower Planning Groups are being established to address the operational and strategic consequences on the planned further reduction in Public Service numbers. Of course, it is part of the day to day function of the management of all public bodies to assess, budget and plan for current and ongoing staffing requirements including the identifying of key posts and services.