I thank the Chairman for giving me the opportunity to make a statement. We have come a long way since my last appearance before the committee. The biggest change has been the establishment of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission which has given the Houses financial independence through a multiannual budget drawn from the Central Fund. It has also given Members a significant input into the administration of the Houses. It is appropriate that, although the committee's examination ostensibly covers the 2005 accounts, it comes at the end of the Commission's first three-year financial cycle.
The first three years are seen to have been a success, as reflected in the recent debates in both Houses on the 2006 commission Act. When I was here last a number of years ago, we ranked among the least well resourced parliaments in Europe, whereas the Commission's most recent strategic plan for 2007 presents a future vision of a world-class parliament. This is down to the policies and decisions of the Commission, as implemented by the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas in the past three years, building on the landmark Deloitte & Touche international benchmarking and resource consultancy of 2002. The consultancy recommendations have been implemented by the Commission in a prudent manner by tailoring its recommendations to the needs of Members, identifying administrative priorities and sanctioning posts only on the basis of sound business cases. This prudent approach means the first Commission, despite having introduced much needed resource increases, has lived well within budget, delivering €13 million in savings in the first three years, representing 4% of the total budget.
Testament to the success of the first Commission, significant improvements in front-line services for Members have been delivered. These include the strand two resource package, uniquely tailored to Members' needs as a result of a significant Commission input to the design of the scheme, and the new library and research service which now has 29 staff organised into four research teams which can provide on-demand research in the fields of law, economics, social science and public administration and politics. The service is available to the committee secretariat for committee business.
A major ICT package for Members was designed and rolled out in close consultation with the Commission's ICT committee and delivered, for example, improved equipment and tailored applications for Members such as a client details database. The one-stop shop acts as a single point of contact for Members for all payments, allowances, travel and subsistence, secretarial and constituency allowances and pensions. Access to Leinster House has been improved as a result of increased opening hours, while printing facilities have been centralised under the supervision of a professional print manager to deliver service improvements and increased controls in response to a value-for-money review of the facility.
Much needed facilities improvements have been delivered such as the fitness room and crèche. Innovations in supporting and processing parliamentary business have been introduced such as an e-legislation system which includes translations, an e-Chamber pilot project and a highly effective EU scrutiny system in the committee secretariat, to name but a few. The Commission's new strategic plan to be published in two weeks builds on this success by advocating a Member-centred approach, whereby we will consult Members and act on feedback from them in the delivery of new and improved services.
Financial independence brings with it additional responsibility, requires appropriate governance arrangements and, in general, a higher level of accountability. Effective use by the Commission of sub-committees has been a notable feature. The Commission's finance committee monitors ongoing expenditure on a quarterly basis and reports to the Commission. An independent audit committee has been appointed in line with best practice. These committees, together with Commission committees in specific policy areas, for example, ICT, communications, research and allowances, have worked extremely well. By providing the opportunity for regular dialogue with, and feedback from, Members, they are a valuable resource in guiding management in the development of Member-centred services and service delivery improvements. At the same time they ensure compliance with financial controls and public service governance requirements.
The Office participates in Civil Service-wide programmes such as those on modernisation and value for money reviews. We are also accountable for our performance, as are other Departments, to the Civil Service performance verification group, CSPVG, which will decide on the award of pay increases under Towards 2016. We have developed an efficiency action programme under which we internally examine our larger business cost areas.
The behind the scenes work of the Commission and the Office is increasingly transparent by virtue of the publication of strategic plans, corporate business plans, annual reports and Commission minutes, on the parliamentary website. Commission accountability mechanisms and communications with Members generally will be kept under constant review. To illustrate how these may develop in the future, the House of Commons Commission's annual report is the subject of a debate on the floor of the Commons and the Commons commission has a spokesperson who answers parliamentary questions on a quarterly basis.
While the general election this year will present a clear challenge for our operations, a number of major strategic issues are emerging for the Commission and one of these is to improve public understanding of the role and work of the Houses and Members. The Commission engaged consultants to undertake a major communications audit of the Houses which concluded that there is a communications deficit. As part of their work, the consultants commissioned a Taylor Nelson Sofres Market Research Bureau of Ireland, TNS-MRBI, poll on public attitudes to the Houses which made some interesting findings. For example, well over half of the population does not regard the work of the Houses of the Oireachtas as very important; however, over half the population feel that Members work hard. Just over half of the population does not feel they are well informed about the work of the Oireachtas and 20% of the population can make no attempt to describe the work of the Houses.
These findings have clearly left the Commission with a great deal of work to do and, in response, the Commission has agreed a comprehensive communications strategy, aimed at improving media relations, developing education and information programmes and fostering greater support for communications within the Houses of the Oireachtas. A Commission committee has been appointed to evaluate and monitor the implementation of the communications strategy over the next two to three years.
Another area of strategic priority is information and communications technology and, in particular, the increased role and influence of technology and the Internet in service delivery and in shaping public opinion and policy. Recently a senior member of the British Cabinet referred to politicians as being in the slow lane of the information superhighway. While there are exceptions to this rule here, it is probably fair to say that not only politicians but the whole political system is playing catch-up in this area.
In recognition of the growing strategic importance of this area, and in response to the communications deficit mentioned, we have recently restructured our electronic service provision into two distinct functions. These are e-Parliament, focusing inwardly on the needs of the Houses, and e-Democracy, focussing outwardly on communications and engagement with the public. Each area is headed by a member of the senior management team.
Over the past 18 months the Commission has been working, in a client capacity, in partnership with the Office of Public Works, on the development of a long-term, 20-year vision for our parliamentary buildings. At a high level, the plan involves expanding the footprint of the precinct on the existing location and the possible construction of new chambers, in time for the 100th anniversary of the first Dáil in 2019, and will complement initiatives under the communications strategy. However, the plan is very much at the conceptual stage and will be the subject of detailed consultations with all stakeholders, such as the Committee on Procedure and Privileges of both Houses, party leaders and the Government.
The establishment of the Commission has been overwhelmingly positive for the administration of the Houses and it has secured a budget of €393 million for the next three years. Part of this will provide for the forthcoming general election which is estimated to cost in the region of €24 million to €26 million.
While the Commission has worked extremely well, there are some areas where more clarity may be required, for example, the relationship between the statutory role of the Commission and the role of the administrative House domestic committees under Standing Orders. In addition, the Commission recognises that it operates in a complex framework of discretion and accountability, and must have regard to prevailing constitutional and legal constraints in exercising its statutory powers. The Commission's budget is not the only source of Exchequer funding for parties as more than €11.5 million is disbursed annually through the party leaders' allowances and party funding under the Electoral Acts.
The Commission's guiding principle is that of parity of treatment for all members. Commission members are acutely aware that they serve in a corporate capacity and not a party representative one and have not shied away from decisions in the wider interests of all members, present and future, for example, the implementation of the value for money, VFM, report on printing.
The Commission brings its own opportunities and challenges to the culture of the office, which has been predominately focussed on operations in running the Houses since the foundation of the State and now must embrace strategic issues. Parliaments throughout the world are faced with the same need to evolve in this way and to be able to demonstrate accountability to taxpayers in how services are administered.
Much has been achieved in the Office in the near seamless transition to our new governance arrangements under the Commission without impacting on the delivery of key services to run the business of Parliament. A major challenge for our management development and training programmes is to ensure that the Office culture is appropriate to our context under the Commission. We intend to meet this challenge using a multifaceted approach through the integrated work of our senior management committee, continued prudent financial management, our modernisation agenda, in particular the use of cross-functional teams, an enhanced focus on strategic thinking, improved service delivery to Members in response to feedback on our performance and risk and project management and evaluation processes.
We must also ensure that we have the optimum organisation structure and skills base in place and that we remain flexible and responsive in order to deliver on the Commission's priorities in its new strategic plan. We will do this through a comprehensive review of our founding legislation with a view to a consolidated parliamentary services Act in the near future.
