Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will outline the opportunities that persons in lower grades of the Public Service have been afforded ion contributing to the reforms of the public service as sought in the Public Service Agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50649/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In 2010 the Department conducted an online consultation survey with all staff for ideas and contributions on cost saving mechanisms and effective and efficient processes within the Department.  A total of 138 individual suggestions were submitted as part of this process. Of these, 37 are directly related to existing actions incorporated in the Department’s Public Service Agreement Action plan, for example: 

-the review and streamlining of the PQ process.

-Shared services i.e. payroll, HR & ICT functions between Department and agencies and reducing resources in central divisions as shared services come on-board.

-Review of overtime costs, making better use of IT and systematic reviews of salary allowances etc. to identify efficiencies and restructure work to reduce costs.

The remainder of the suggestions made practical proposals for specific implementation measures by Divisions within the Department. The Department has in place a dedicated subgroup of the Department Council Forum who meet on a quarterly basis to discuss and propose updates to the Public Service Agreement Action Plan. 

In addition, in late 2011 a staff attitudinal survey was conducted from which the results and an implementation plan for the key recommendations were submitted to the Department's Management Board in March 2012.   The ongoing implementation of these recommendations is monitored by the Department's Partnership Committee, which includes representatives of all staff levels in the Department.