A single view of reform
Eight months after the Public Service Reform Plan, Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Secretary General Robert Watt and Assistant Secretary Paul Reid discuss progress with Owen McQuade.
“The demand for public services is greater than ever,” reports Robert Watt, Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. In order to achieve sustained reform of the Public Service (i.e. the Civil Service and public service agencies such as An Garda Síochana, the HSE and local government), business practices must be altered as well as the way in which the Civil Service uses available resources to deliver savings.
Within the first six months “we’ve got off to a good momentum,” adds reform programme Director Paul Reid. Each department has submitted an integrated reform plan. This sets out its own sector-specific priorities relating to the Programme for Government and the Public Service Reform Plan. The programme office is “now in a position to present to government a single view of reform.”
The six key reform areas are:
• reducing Public Service numbers;
• implementing shared services;
• e-government and cloud computing strategies;
• external service delivery;
• procurement; and
• property rationalisation.
The country’s economic situation is an impetus for reform, the pair report. “Ireland needs a Public Service that can meet the needs of our people in the years ahead,” Watt states. The EU-IMF fiscal commitments have provided the Civil Service with a “burning platform” to change how it is structured and how it operates.
New skills have been brought into the department’s Reform Delivery Office to assist the department in its reform programme: Hilary Murphy Fagan has joined with key global experience in shared services and Kevin Daly with expertise in external service delivery with the Australian Government.
Shared services is very much on the agenda and the Government has approved a HR and pensions administration shared services centre for the Civil Service. Departments will “migrate” their support services into the centre during 2013.
The use of ICT to deliver better services is another priority with an eGovernment strategy announced in April 2012. It outlined key actions, including:
• using new and emerging technologies and social media;
• collaborating with citizens to ensure that government is designed around real needs;
• providing incentives to encourage citizens and businesses to use e-government channels; and
• ensuring that Public Service data is available for re-use.
A cloud computing strategy will see the Public Service moving its ICT infrastructure to the cloud through a “multi-year process”. Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin has said that reliance on its own ICT infrastructure is likely to reduce over time, to be replaced by ICT services that are consumed on “some form of metered basis.”
New roster arrangements mean that gardaí are available for frontline duty at peak hours. Additional working hours are being implemented in schools and hospitals with new rosters for radiographers and medical laboratory technicians. “Outmoded” practices such as bank time and privilege days have been abolished from the Civil Service.
“We have a strong political mandate for reform,” reports Reid. A Cabinet committee on Public Service reform chaired by the Taoiseach provides political direction, governance and accountability. It is supported by an advisory group of secretaries general, chaired by Watt. A reform delivery board, comprised of assistant secretaries is responsible for reforming their respective departments and offices and the Reform Delivery Office, headed by Reid, within the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, is responsible for overall leadership.
Watt insists that “leadership across all levels of the Public Service will be crucial to our success.” All secretaries general and other senior officials “will be expected to play an active part in leading the delivery of reform,” he concludes.
| Reducing numbers
• Public Service numbers (currently 292,000) will be reduced to 282,500 by the end of 2015 from a peak of 320,000 in 2008. • Flexible redeployment has allowed staff to be assigned to where they are most needed to meet operational priorities. (e.g. 200 secondary and 950 primary level teachers have been redeployed for the 2011-2012 school year, with an estimated full-year saving of €57.5 million.) • The senior Public Service has been established. According to the department, it will promote a more integrated Public Service and strengthen its senior management and leadership capacity (by making it easier for senior staff to move between senior posts.) • The Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Bill 2011 was passed by 98 to 36 votes on Wednesday 11 July. It will introduce a career average pension scheme, index pension accrual and link pension increases to the consumer price index and not pay, and increase the pension age for all new entrants to the service (to 66 from 2014) in order to reduce future pension costs. • The standardisation of annual leave will see the same cap on the leave allowance for different public service employment groups. • The Labour Court has issued a recommendation to halve the amount of paid sick leave paid to public sector workers. |
Reforming organisation
Shared services • The Civil Service will “test business cases and bring to government proposals for HR, payroll, pensions, finance and banking,” Reid explains. The initiative will span 40 departments, offices and agencies. • The e-government strategy encourages more initiatives like the Public Services Card (a micro-chipped ID card currently being rolled out to welfare claimants, ultimately to be used by citizens accessing all public services) and the data sharing clearing house (set up to review all relevant legislative provision in relation to data-sharing between public bodies). • The cloud computing strategy will initially aim to reduce costs by cutting the number of data centres used by the Civil Service. External service delivery • 46 state agency rationalisation proposals are being critically reviewed by departments and a report will be brought to government for consideration shortly. |
| Reforming expenditure
Procurement Property rationalisation Value for money • The traditional estimates cycle is being replaced by a Medium Term Expenditure Framework, under which expenditure ceilings for each department are set out on a multi-annual basis, allowing more scrutiny by Oireachtas committees. |
Reforming the political framework
Transparency • The Freedom of Information Act will be restored to its original 1997 format and will cover all state-funded bodies including NAMA. • The draft heads of the Protected Disclosures in the Public Interest Bill 2012 (i.e. whistleblower protection legislation) were agreed in June. “In well-run and risk-focused organisations, whistleblowing should be encouraged and promoted,” Watt contends. “The need for protections against reprisals is a safety-net when the whistleblower rather than the information they have disclosed becomes the primary focus of the organisation’s attention.” • The Ombudsman Amendment Bill (currently at second stage in the Seanad) seeks to extend the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to all public bodies. |
Implementing reform
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Cabinet Committee on Public Service Reform
Considers priority issues Chair: Taoiseach |
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Advisory Group of
Secretaries General Provides support and advice on strategy and policy Chair: General Secretary of DPER Robert Watt |
Reform Delivery Board
Assistant secretaries responsible for delivering reform in their respective departments |
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Reform Delivery Office within DPER
Public Service Reform and Delivery Division (responsible for driving overall Public Service reform) Programme Director: Paul Reid Government Reform Unit (responsible for the Government reform agenda including legislation and policy) Head of Unit: William Beausang |
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