Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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71. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which scope continues to exist in 2015 for savings through reform as opposed to expenditure cuts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17199/14]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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74. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the savings achieved through reform throughout the public sector in each of the past five years to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17202/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 71 and 74 together.

As set out in my reply to the Deputy's Oral Question today (reference 16728/14) on a similar theme, the Government is continuing to make good progress on achieving its deficit targets and priorities.  Since its peak in 2009, Gross Voted Expenditure has been reduced by €10.1 billion or 16%, from €63.1 billion in 2009 to just under €53 billion in 2014.  Staff numbers have also been reduced by over 30,000 since 2008, even as demands on services increased. In bringing public expenditure back onto a sustainable path, meaningful reform of the Public Service was essential to ensure that we can maintain and improve services.  In November 2011, we published our first Public Service Reform Plan.  In January this year, I published a report setting out the progress made under the first Reform Plan.  At the same time, I also published the Government's second Public Service Reform Plan, setting out our ambition for the next three years.  These documents are available on my Department's website.

As well as enabling services to be maintained and improved in the context of reduced resources, a number of reforms have delivered, and will deliver, significant cost savings.

- The Croke Park Agreement delivered €1.8 billion in pay and non-pay savings.  The Haddington Road Agreement sets out a number of measures to deliver a further reduction of €1 billion in the Public Service pay and pensions bill by 2016.  It also provides for a total of 15 million additional working hours annually across all sectors of the Public Service, which will help to deliver long term and sustainable increases in productivity.

- We have undertaken a major review of public procurement and are now implementing a radical overhaul of our approach, with the new Office of Public Procurement targeting €500 million in savings over the next three years (€127 million this year).

- We are introducing shared services for a range of back-office functions to increase efficiency and integration across organisations.  For example, Peoplepoint, the Civil Service HR and Pensions Shared Service Centre, will deliver savings estimated at €12.5 million annually when fully operational.

- The use of innovative models of service delivery, greater use of technology and more efficient management of the State's property portfolio will also yield increased efficiencies.

Some of the savings made will be re-invested into public services as a "reform dividend", utilised to support service improvements and to sustain the reform agenda beyond the current fiscal crisis.

Of course, as well as reducing costs we are implementing other reforms, with the objective of building a more sustainable and effective Public Service.  We have put in place new working arrangements, including longer working hours, new rosters, and standardised arrangements for annual leave and sick leave.  The budgetary process has been reformed to make it more transparent and to improve how we spend public money.  We are implementing a programme of political reform to increase openness and to rebuild public trust in the State.  We are renewing the Civil Service to enable it to meet current and future challenges.

These are just a few of the initiatives underway to build a more customer-centred, open and transparent, responsive, efficient and effective Public Service.  Public Service Reform will continue to be an important element of the Government's strategy for economic recovery, with our ambition for reform for the next three years set out in the new Public Service Reform Plan.