John Bruton
Question:61 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance the purpose of the recent visit by a group of senior civil servants to New Zealand; and whether a report of the visit will be published.
Written Answers. - Civil Servants New Zealand Visit.
At present a group of 11 officers of Assistant Secretary rank from a number of Departments and Offices are participating in their second year of a two-year M.Sc. programme in public sector management at the School of Business Studies in Trinity College. The programme is sponsored by my Department and was introduced with the expressed purpose of enhancing and further developing the management and analytical skills of senior civil servants with a view to promoting a more strategically orientated approach to managing the Civil Service. The two-year M.Sc. programme is part-time and the officers involved continue to attend also to their normal official duties in their respective Departments and Offices.
In partial fulfilment for the award of the M.Sc., the group is required to complete a major benchmarking, best-practice project as well as individual dissertations in the course of the second year. The group, in consultation with the programme leaders in Trinity College, selected as their benchmarking, best-practice project a detailed study of the application of strategic management in a public sector context with particular focus on New Zealand and Australia, in both of which major strategic management initiatives were taken in recent years as part of far-reaching, public sector reform programmes. These countries also have civil services and governments structured along lines similar to ours. Therefore, the purpose of the visit in question, was to evaluate and discuss at first hand, with those directly responsible, the initiatives and reform programmes implemented in both countries. A series of top-level meetings were held between 21 and 25 March in New Zealand and from 28 to 31 March in Australia, at which there was a full and frank discussion of the many issues involved.
As the report to be prepared by the group is in partial fulfilment for the award of the M.Sc. degree by Trinity College, it will comply with the normal requirements of university dissertations and would not generally be made available to others. However, at my request, the group will submit a more succinct report on their findings to my Department. I intend to use that report internally in the context of the Taoiseach's recent strategic management initiative with a view to studying the relevance of the New Zealand and Australian reform programmes to our situation.