Ruairí Quinn
Question:1 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the progress made in regard to preparations for the establishment of the National Centre for Partnership and Performance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8024/01]
Ceisteanna–Questions. - National Centre for Partnership and Performance.
Preparations for the establishment of the National Centre for Partnership and Performance are well under way. Mr. Peter Cassells has been appointed to the post of executive chairman of the NCPP and is due to take up the post in July. Interviews for the post of director of the NCPP were undertaken by the office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners on 12 March last and it is expected an appointment will be made shortly. The executive chairperson and the director will now work together in developing the role of the NCPP, including its strategic direction and proposed work programme.
When will the legislation necessary to put all this on a statutory basis be brought forward? Where will the centre be located? Has a work programme been published or will the existing work programme of the old National Centre for Partnership be revised in light of the new changes?
The legislation is making fair progress. IBEC, ICTU and the social partners have completed their work. The final draft or what I hope is the final draft was sent recently to the chief parliamentary counsel to incorporate in a draft Bill. I hope there will be progress on the Bill. All the outstanding aspects from our point of view have been completed.
As regards the location, it is intended that the NESC, the NESF and the NCPP will work together in one building where they will share secretarial and other staff. They have separate remits but it makes sense for them to do so.
Where will they be located?
I think they have moved into an office but I am not sure where it is located. The other two have already moved to somewhere in the vicinity. I will check that for the Deputy.
I take it they are not in a Government building. They are autonomous, both physically and geographically.
They have moved out of Government Buildings.
As regards the work programme, the executive chairperson of the NCPP, Mr. Peter Cassells, will chair the board but he must complete his own responsibilities. He will do some work in the meantime. He will be responsible for developing the role of the centre, its strategic direction and the funding arrangements, although an increase has been made available in the Estimates for that and for the structure of the secretariat. The framework for the work programme is already set out in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. I am sure some Members are familiar with the evaluation report on partnership. An excellent evaluation of the work already done has been carried out by Rory O'Donnell and Paul Teague from Queen's University. They set out a good framework of where the work should go from here. It seems that is a good guideline.
Will the Taoiseach briefly outline the remit of the NCPP and where its remit stops in relation to the NESC and the NESF?
The work done by the old NCP under Partnership 2000 led to significant progress on partnership in the public service. Since then every Department has established a partnership committee. The NCPP will move on from that, but it will not cross the work of the NESC. The NESC will be still the strategic developer of national policies. It will also carry out all its work programme and different projects, but it will not do that at enterprise partnership level or in the public or private sector. It will continue to do the strategic overview work it has always done. It will not be involved in the dissemination of information or best practices. We hope this report will move it on from its broad operations to the workplace. Mr. Peter Cassells, who knows this area inside out, has strong views on bringing the national scheme not just into loose structures but to an operational level. It will do the type of job the NESC would do. The NESF, the forum in which many Members participate, will continue to overview national policies, whether budgetary or social policies. Where the remits are related, they will not cross.