The Government decided to proceed with the initiative of public service management that I announced on Tuesday last on the basis that we need change in the public service so that we can respond to the economic and social challenges we are facing. Our partnership Government provides the stability that gives us an opportunity to make worthwhile change.
The Government has decided that each Secretary and Head of Office will put in place a process of strategic management, within the framework of the Programme for a Partnership Government, the National Development Plan and the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.
Each will produce, as a first step, an action oriented statement of strategy. These statements will outline where Departments should be strategically to meet the objectives of the Programme for Partnership Government, the National Development Programme and the Programme for Competitiveness and Work, as opposed to where they currently are and how they will achieve the change required.
The Government has decided, also, that a new co-ordinating group of secretaries will recommend management changes, including legislation, if such is needed. These changes will be designed to enable individual secretaries to manage more efficiently and effectively given the conflicting needs of overall control and line responsibility. In this regard, the proposals in the draft public service pay agreement in regard to restructuring will provide an opportunity within the necessary financial parameters for public service management and public service unions to work together to agree change in structure and work practices for the mutual benefit of both parties.
The group will also recommend the ways in which interacting departmental strategies should be co-ordinated to achieve the benefits of an overall view.
The statements of strategy and the positions produced by the co-ordinating group of secretaries will, of course, be for ministerial and Government decision in every case. Work on the new initiative will build on but probably must go well beyond action already underway. This action includes changes in the structures of Government Departments and agencies; the new system of programme managers; work by Departments, principally the Departments of Social Welfare and Health and the Revenue Commissioners, on customer service; networks at assistant secretary and principal levels and the administrative budget system. The new service-wide initiative will add momentum to these actions.
The three key areas to be addressed in the new strategy process are the contribution public bodies can make to national development; providing an excellent service to the public and making efficient and effective use of resources.
I see strategies being developed for all public bodies, be they Government Departments, local authorities, health boards, commercial and non-commercial State bodies. I see the important first steps being in place in six months. The entire process must be based on two key principles. Management must know what needs to be changed and the change must come from within.
The issue of joint ventures between the public and private sectors and the public sector taking a commercial approach are important options in the process of public bodies making a substantial contribution to national development. Worthwhile opportunities can be identified for such joint ventures or commercial approaches and I believe these can happen in a variety of ways with varying levels of formality. For example, a joint working party representative of the Department of Finance and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General will shortly bring forward proposals to update Government financial procedures, including greater flexibility for quasi-commercial operations within Departments. There will be action which is fully consistent with the commitment in the Programme for Partnership Government that the main strategic utilities and enterprises remain in the ownership of the Irish people while having the freedom to enter joint ventures with the private and co-operative sectors. My objective is to ensure the opportunities which exist are seriously considered by public bodies as options when they come to assess how they can strengthen significantly their contribution to national development.