Vol. 519 No. 5
3 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of his Department in deepening and strengthening the SMI process through the Civil Service and public service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12674/00]
4 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the progress of the strategic management initiative in bringing about reform in the public sector. [12755/00]
5 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the progress which has been made by the SMI unit of his Department and the statute law revision unit in the Attorney General's office in relation to the programme of restatement, revision and consolidation of primary and secondary legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12756/00]
asked the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the new performance management and development system for the Civil Service which he launched on 11 May 2000. [14043/00]
7 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach if he will outline the main areas which will be covered in the Statute Law (Restatement) Bill which is expected to be published by him in the current Dáil session; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14047/00]
8 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach if he will make a statement on the launch of the latest phase of the strategic management initiative for the Civil Service; the way in which the new phase of the SMI will be applied within his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14190/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 to 8, inclusive, together.
On Thursday, 11 May I launched the new performance management and development system for the Civil Service in Dublin Castle. This system is the culmination of a wide-ranging and inclusive consultative process, including formal discussions between management and unions. Entitled Excellence through Performance – Moving Forward Together, the performance management and development system is designed to be practical and workable and to provide objectivity and fairness in its implementation. It is based on clearly identifying roles and the range of competencies that each person needs to fulfil his or her role. I have laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas the information pack on this system, which sets out its main features, and my speech at the launch.
The Programme for Prosperity and Fairness identified as one of its key objectives the implementation of this system in each Department and office. A major investment is being made in training for implementation which is being led by the centre for management organisation and development in the Department of Finance. Project teams have been established in each organisation, including my Department, to facilitate implementation. Implementation plans are now being developed in my Department. The role of partnership committees in implementing and further developing the process in individual organisations will be essential.
I last briefed the Dáil on progress under the strategic management initiative in October last. At that time I referred to the launch last July of the next phase of the SMI and to the specific initiatives which were designed to improve the functioning of the Civil Service and its capacity to deliver high quality services effectively. The following table sets out the progress of various elements of the SMI.
The agreement of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, with its focus on public service modernisation, will facilitate the speedy implementation of the framework for public service modernisation, with particular emphasis on developing a sectoral approach. Strategies for the Civil Service, the education, health and local authority sectors, are set out in detail. The programme also makes a specific link between the achievement of performance indicators relating to the modernisation programme and the payment of the final 4% of the pay agreement.
Within my Department, significant progress is being made on the SMI agenda, particularly in relation to performance management and financial management. Indeed, an advertisement will shortly be placed for a professional accountant to assist with financial management changes in the Department.
On the specific issue of regulatory reform, the following are the main developments: in July last the Government published Reducing Red Tape – An Action Programme of Regulatory Reform in Ireland. Among other things, the action programme required each Department and office to consult with customers and other interested parties as to the priorities for regulatory reform. Based on those consultations, each Department and office has now listed the relevant legislation, both primary and secondary, and the regulatory reform unit and statute law revision unit in the Office of the Attorney General have been working closely to establish priorities for a work programme of consolidation, revision, repeal or restatement, as appropriate. Consultation with Departments and offices on this programme is ongoing. When completed, the work programme will be submitted by me to Government for its approval.
At a recent meeting, the Government agreed to the publication of a Bill which will empower the Attorney General to prepare versions of Acts of the Oireachtas, to be known as restatements, in a more readable form without altering the substance of the legislation and, accordingly, will not require the approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas. The aim of this proposal is to make statute law more accessible and readable. It is expected that the Bill will be brought before the Oireachtas as soon as possible. The OECD is undertaking a country review of regulatory reform in Ireland, which will be completed early next year.
These initiatives demonstrate the Government's ongoing commitment to try to make it easier to do business with Government and to make legislation more coherent and accessible.
Update on SMI
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Issue |
Update |
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1)Performance Management |
The general council report on performance management and development has been agreed. The system is being formally rolled out to Departments and offices and the official launch of the programme took place on 11 May. |
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2)Regulatory Reform |
Departments and offices were asked to list relevant legislation, identifying scope for consolidation, revision and-or repeal. This process has been completed. The SMI unit of the Department of the Taoiseach and the statute law revision unit of the Office of the Attorney General will work closely to establish priorities for reform. When approved, this work programme will be submitted to the Government.Ireland has been selected to take part in the OECD's country review programme on regulatory reform for 2000. A delegation from the OECD is due to visit Ireland between 19 June and 23 June 2000 to meet Departments and relevant bodies and agencies as part of the information gathering stage of the review. The OECD expects to publish the final report in early 2001.The Government has agreed to the publication of a Bill which will empower the Attorney General to prepare versions of Acts of the Oireachtas (to be known as ‘restatements') in a more readable form. This will not alter the substance of the legislation and, accordingly, will not require the approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas. |
|
3)Partnership |
A report on the evaluation of partnership entitled Partnership at work in Ireland – An evaluation of progress under P2000 has been completed and will be published following submission to Government. Included in the report are recommendations to enhance the role of the National Centre for Partnership. |
|
Issue |
Update |
|
4)QCS Working Group |
The QCS working group has reviewed the QCS principles of 1997. It has suggested changes to the principles. These revised principles will go to Government shortly.The QCS working group has also set up three sub-groups: best practice, benchmarking and equality-diversity |
|
5)HRM Issues(a)Recruitment |
Work is continuing on recruitment, with the intended changes to the Civil Service Commission being overseen by the HRM working group.The Department of Finance is currently working on producing draft heads of a new public service recruitment Bill |
|
(b)Equality |
The equality sub-group is now at an advanced stage of finalising a draft new gender equality policy which it is intended will be submitted to the Government very shortly.A seminar is being organised on 13 June to launch a discussion on the new policy.The report Gender Equality in the Civil Service has been published and circulated to key groups in the Civil Service. The executive summary of the report will have been circulated to all civil servants by mid-May 2000. |
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(c)Code of Practice |
This code is being finalised at present and will be submitted to Government shortly. |
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(d)Other HRM Issues |
These include important issues such as promotion, tenure and training etc., and are being addressed by the HRM working group. |
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6)Financial Management |
Work is continuing on the roll-out of the new financial management model. Both the technical issues and the project management sub-groups of the consultative committee of assistant secretaries have met on a number of occasions. |
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7)Information Technology |
Proposals for the delivery of integrated electronic public services were recently agreed by Government. The SMI implementation group will now consider the next steps in the context of the development of strategies by each Department for the delivery of e-public services. |
Why are the key features of the new performance management and development system phrased exclusively in terms of objectives without reference to the overriding consideration in the public service, which is the provision of a service based on integrity in all actions taken and a sense of serving the public? Is there not a risk that the focus placed on concrete objectives will distort the service element in favour of selected measurable phenomena that can be logged for the purposes of career development?
The new system does not do away with existing regulations given to civil servants when they enter the Civil Service. They are concerned with the principle of service to the State and include all the rules and regulations on ethics, the decision making process and dealing with official information, including the Official Secrets Act. This next phase attempts to build on the strategic management initiatives that have been undertaken in the past number of years. To date there have been seven initiatives and an attempt has been made to work through all of them, which has involved an enormous amount of consultation. An enormous amount of work has been done.
While those involved would probably say they have not achieved all they would like, they have made a huge difference. They have dealt with the customer service initiative, which seeks to ensure departmental staff work to their Departments' statements of objectives. These include additional initiatives to those referred to by the Deputy to ensure staff provide a better service. They also deal with human resource management issues, which include performance management and IT issues. The Civil Service is involved in an enormous amount of work in the IT area. All Departments and agencies are drawing up IT programmes to try to work more efficiently through information technology.
Consideration is being given to a performance management and development system, which I hope will assist the staff. With regard to much of what has happened to date, especially practices over the years, the CMOD in the Department of Finance and other agencies, such as the IPA and the IMI, which has worked with the Civil Service, would claim not enough effort has been put into the staff aspect.
This development will in a few years link matters to the third round of the pay agreement. More importantly, it will mean staff training. The 20,000 plus civil servants will receive training, at least a minimum of five days in the first instance, in an effort to introduce professional training management techniques into the Civil Service. This has not happened in the past. People take up their jobs, are assigned to a Department and to a large extent are left to paddle their own canoes in the absence of proper management techniques. This area has been highlighted as requiring major work, which is what this performance management initiative is about.
Does the Taoiseach agree it is very important that we do not throw out the baby with the bath water? Does he also agree one of the strongest characteristics of the State since its foundation has been the integrity of the public service? The introduction of what are described as the T range of competencies, including clarity in terms of objective, role, career expectations, control in terms of participation and contribution in terms of a business plan are welcome, as are all the other new management oriented and private sector derived ideas. However, does the Taoiseach agree a performance management system that does not put fundamental characteristics – such as fairness to all citizens, regardless of their stations or allegiances in life or their personal preferences – ahead of all other management school derived notions runs the risk of loosing something very precious in the public service, which is its integrity that has survived largely intact throughout much turbulence since the State was founded?
I agree, but that has not been lost. It has not been thrown out. It is still part of the fundamental contract. The integrity of the public service is still number one in the review of the 1956 Act on the Civil Service Commission, on which work is ongoing. It will be next year before it is amended and it will be 45 years next year since that was last done. These other initiatives are perhaps in management terms, but they are that the public and civil service work to their own strategy statement which more than ever before, takes account of for whom they are meant to work, which is the public. Their efforts and techniques are to ensure that in the modern public service, they will gear their work and their efforts towards serving the public. With 6,000 employees in revenue and 5,500 in social welfare, it is important that exercise takes place.
Does the Taoiseach and his senior colleagues in Government recognise that there is a crisis in the public service, but particularly the Civil Service, and that for the first time since the foundation of the State, the Civil Service as a body is having serious difficulty in attracting new entrants? It has major difficulty in ensuring that entrants who go through the procedure of the exams and who find themselves on a panel are actually available to take up a job when an offer is made. Would he agree there has been a virtual haemorrhaging out of the Department of Foreign Affairs of third secretary grade people who have had three or four years experience in the public service in a job that previously was regarded as a plum job?
Does he accept, broadly speaking, and he has more access to the detail than I have, that there is a transformation in the perception of the public service in general and the Civil Service in particular in the labour market and that we need to do something very quickly to maintain the quality of intake that have previously joined and to ensure that those who join have a satisfactory work environment? If the Taoiseach accepts the broad thrust of that presentation, when will the PMDS system, which was launched by him just over two weeks ago in Dublin Castle, transform itself into an effective performance related pay system that will reward people who go the extra mile in a manner that does not disrupt existing hierarchical structures? When will we see the flattening of those hierarchical structures?
I accept the broad analysis. There is no need for me to go through each point. There is a pull from so many other professions given the advantages in them. I was in UCD very recently and from a group 184 students, more than 150 had signed up for jobs, provided they obtained their degrees. We are living in a different age.
It would have been the reverse 30 years ago.
In the class of accountants graduating this year, every single student doing his or her finals has a job and contract pending results. I cannot argue against the analysis as that is a fact. I have seen very good clerical workers in my office leave to receive, on the Monday they started in the new job, increases of more than £5,000 on what they were earning on the Friday on which they left the Civil Service.
That applies to Dáil secretaries as well.
It is a fact of life. As to what we are doing about it, performance management is fundamentally important. Deputy Quinn was kind enough to give up his time, which was appreciated on that day, for the presentations and the launch. He had a deep interest in this from when he was Minister for Finance and he worked with CMOD. They hope to start immediately to review two major elements of work. One is the amendment of the 1956 Act. Under an earlier process, they could work slowly, but that was in a different day. The review is being conducted by the former Secretary to the Government and former Commissioner.
The second aspect is the design and implementation of systems and the introduction of team programmes not just in the Civil Service but also in the health service employers group and local authorities. The objective is to improve organisational flexibility and better targeting and training. The days of assigning young educated people to a particular Department without checking on how they are getting on, the work they are doing and the training provided are over. That we got away with this for so long—
We are not getting away with it any more. They are walking out the door.
No. This has to happen very quickly. As the Deputy is aware, having attended the launch, the final payment of 4% under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness is linked to implementation of work programmes. Why am I doing this job? For whom am I working? What is my job? What are we trying to do? These are issues which have to be addressed.
The fifth question is, "Why am I being paid the same amount of money as the fellow at the end of the corridor who does not come in?"
The Deputy will agree that the old system of appraisals which was meant to identify and overcome those difficulties did not work well.
On performance management, it will be difficult in the civil and public service to link staff in a particular area and say, "You are going to get this" and "You are not going to get that" but there are other ways of doing it. At present a line manager – for example, the important grade of principal officer – cannot bring his or her staff out for an evening with a view to creating motivation. The regulations on these matters are not followed by the commercial State companies. There is a need to ease up in the Civil Service. One cannot build team spirit if one is not allowed any vouched expenses. There is a need for such techniques. I agree with the Deputy that if we fail to do this urgently we will face a crisis in ten or 15 years when we will not have the people in leadership positions that we have had since the foundation of the State.
There has been too much emphasis on the status attached to grades. While there is a need for grading structures, it is even more important to take into consideration what people are trying to do and give them due respect and recognition. Whether one is 19th or 59th in the Civil Service it has to be recognised that one is doing a job. Without being over-critical that has not always happened in the past.
What is the position on the code of practice under the SMI?
While a code of practice has been drawn up, it has still not been agreed.
What is the problem?
I will have to check that matter for the Deputy. The people involved have tried to bring forward the seven more important work programmes. The code of practice is perhaps not one that they considered to be—
Who has to sign off on the code of practice and what will it cover?
I do not have all the details of where the code of practice is as it was brought on a few years ago. However, as I understand from previous questions I answered on the code, the staff side and the implementation group have not signed off on it. I can get details of where it is at for the Deputy, but it is about two years since I answered questions on this issue.
If it was about two years ago and nothing has happened in those two years, is the Taoiseach even a little concerned that the code of practice is not getting the priority it should receive?
I am not too sure the code of practice is the problem. It is not setting down what people are doing. The statements of management practice which were considered at the time – codes of practice were considered – may even have replaced them but I am not sure of that. The SMI implementation group's focus was to have statements from Departments on what they were doing. The efforts were placed on the performance management system, human resource management and IT systems. The code of practice may have fallen out along the way, but I will check it for the Deputy.
