Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 66: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the date the organisational review programme of the Department of the Taoiseach, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Department of Education and Skills, and Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government will be completed. [3798/12]

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 67: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the actions he has taken in actively pursuing shared services between State bodies. [3788/12]

Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 93: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide a progress update on the work of his Department's programme director of reform and delivery since his appointment in October. [3789/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 66, 67 and 93 together.

On 17 November last, I announced several key developments relating to Public Service reform and published the Government's Public Service Reform Plan which provides the basis for the comprehensive and strategic reform of the Public Service in the coming years. The Reform Plan outlines the priority actions and timelines for reform in a broad range of areas such as:

implementation of shared services models for HR, payroll, pensions etc;

reform of public procurement processes and property rationalisation;

evaluation of new business models for the delivery of non-core services;

reducing costs, addressing duplication and eliminating waste; and

improving performance by organisations and individuals in order to ensure greater efficiency, effectiveness and economy.

Implementation of the Reform Plan is being driven and coordinated by the new Reform and Delivery Office which I have established in my Department. This Office is led by a Programme Director who was appointed last November and who has experience of implementing large scale restructuring in the private sector. The Office will work closely with organisations across the Public Service to enable them to deliver meaningful reform at a local level, as well leading on certain cross-cutting initiatives from the Reform Plan.

Since the appointment of the Programme Director, I can confirm the following progress has been made:

the finalisation of a comprehensive Reform Plan with 200 actions and 70 recommendations across all 14 cross cutting areas; and

the public communication of the Plan and engagement with key stakeholder groups including Oireachtas Committees.

Against the Plan itself, good progress has already been made in implementing certain early actions, for example, the introduction of a range of public expenditure reforms and the establishment of a CIO Council. Detailed proposals in other areas such as shared services, procurement, property management and Govstat are being advanced and a new eGovernment Strategy will be published shortly.

The Reform Office has also put in place the appropriate governance and planning arrangements to ensure a strong focus on delivery. To this end, a number of high level groups have been established to support the work of the Cabinet Committee on Public Service Reform. In addition, each Government Department/Office has now developed an Integrated Reform Delivery Plan setting out both the organisation specific and cross-cutting reforms that they will implement over the coming months and years. We have identified a number of Major Projects of strategic importance for priority attention this year including the Public Services Card, public procurement, property management, HR Shared Services (Civil Service) and Payroll Shared Services (Civil Service) and the Senior Public Service.

In terms of shared services, while I recognise that there has been progress in this area in recent years, I believe that much of this has been on an ad hoc basis and there remains considerable scope to expand its use on a more strategic basis in line with the Programme for Government and the Public Service Reform Plan.

As set out in the Reform Plan, a sectoral approach will be taken to the roll out of shared services and it is intended that shared services developments in the Civil Service (including state bodies where appropriate) will focus initially on priority back-office areas of human resources; payroll; pensions; and banking. Each sector has been asked to submit a detailed shared services plan by the end of Quarter 2, 2012. A Shared Services Transformation Manager with private sector experience on a global scale will shortly be appointed to the Reform and Delivery Office to ensure a strong focus on this priority area.

Work has already commenced under the auspices of my Department on the development of a HR shared service for the Civil Service with the intention of establishing a single HR Shared Service Centre that will undertake the transactional elements of HR processes for the Civil Service. Finally, the reviews of the four Departments under the current phase of the Organisational Review Programme have been completed, along with follow-up action plans prepared by them. Both the reviews and the action plans will be published in a composite report towards the end of this week. All Deputies will be provided with copies on publication.