I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
I am pleased to introduce the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Bill 2003. This is a key public sector reform measure. The public service has a major role to play in the economic and social life of the country. A modern and flexible recruitment system for the public service is essential in supporting the wider modernisation programme set out in the strategic management initiative and in Sustaining Progress. The human resource management working group, a cross-departmental working group established under the strategic management initiative, recommended to the Government that the structures governing the recruitment of civil servants should be reformed. In particular, it was decided that there should be an option for public service bodies to recruit directly as well as through the Civil Service Commissioners. New approaches to the management of public service organisations can only be effective where the recruitment system works in support of those changes. It is not enough to have the right management systems in place, we must also make certain that the best people are selected in a timely manner and are working where their skills and experience can be of most benefit.
The measures in the Bill introduce an important new element of flexibility into the recruitment system. As a result of the changes being introduced, public sector organisations will be able to recruit the staff they need when and where they are needed. The measures will also ensure that the best people are recruited by requiring that best human resource and recruitment practice will be observed at all times. The institutional arrangements contained in the Bill are specifically designed to make sure that recruitment procedures are in line with best practice and will remain so as best practice evolves.
I draw the attention of the House to the support this Bill offers for the decentralisation process announced by the Minister for Finance in the 2004 budget. In the near future, the headquarters and sub-offices of Civil Service Departments and other agencies will be decentralised to locations outside Dublin. It is noteworthy that this Bill is being presented to Dáil Éireann at this time. The changes being introduced will be vital in ensuring that decentralisation works successfully. One of the main aims of the reforms is to allow public sector bodies to tailor recruitment to their own needs, a factor which will be particularly important during the decentralisation process and in supporting the work of those bodies when they are established in their new locations.
The measures in this Bill are part of the strategic approach to management of human resources in the Civil Service and in the other public service organisations to which it will apply. The Bill is not an isolated initiative. It is a significant element of the programme of public service modernisation which was agreed with the public service unions in Sustaining Progress. I am happy to report to the House that the public service unions have been fully consulted about these measures and they agreed to the introduction of the Bill in Sustaining Progress. The changes being introduced are another sign that the benchmarking agreement implemented in Sustaining Progress has produced real, practical changes in the way the public service operates. I ask the House to consider and welcome the Bill in that light.
The Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissions and their staff have performed a very important role over the years. The efficiency and probity with which the commissioners have carried out their work has been a major factor in creating a civil and public service which has allowed the State to develop and prosper. There have been many examples abroad of public confidence in the institutions of Government being undermined in part because of a failure to maintain the probity of the public appointments system. It is to the credit of the commission that this did not happen in Ireland and, moreover, that there has never been even the slightest possibility of it happening. This is a major achievement. Nevertheless, we must accept that all institutions need to adapt and change to take account of the new challenges facing them. We know that the commission's role was largely established at a time when the public service was smaller and was expected to deal with a much narrower range of functions.
As Irish society has changed, the role and function of the civil and public service has also changed. There are many more organisations in the public sector carrying out a wider range of far more complex tasks. This means we must change the way we manage our human resources in the Civil Service. It means giving Secretaries General and Departments the ability to manage their Departments and offices more effectively.
In recent years it has become clear that the public appointments system is not flexible enough to meet modern labour market conditions. On occasion, the Civil Service has found it difficult to recruit the staff it needed because of labour market pressures when the centralised recruitment system could not respond quickly enough to the recruitment needs of complex organisations which were responding to the demands generated by economic expansion. The Government could not allow these bottlenecks to persist. No organisation can allow itself to be put in the position of being unable to recruit the staff it needs, when they are needed, to carry out its work. The reforms proposed in this Bill are designed to modernise the recruitment system so that it can meet the service's requirements and at the same time ensure it will be flexible enough to deal with any future changes in the labour market.
Deputies will agree that there is a major public good in ensuring the fairness and probity of all aspects of recruitment to the public service. I know from personal experience and from my experience as a public representative that it is widely accepted that when anyone applies for a post in the civil or public service, his application will be treated in a fair and impartial manner. I have never heard it said that a public appointment handled by the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissions has been in any way improperly influenced. People have confidence that following interviews or examinations, the best people are appointed to jobs. In any reform of the recruitment system it is essential that the public trust established by the commissioners over the years is maintained. The Government is determined to make certain that this public confidence in the probity of the system will not be undermined. I ask Deputies to bear in mind that many of, if not all, the new institutional arrangements in the Bill have been designed to ensure that this key public value of probity is preserved.
At present, recruitment to the Civil Service and the Garda Síochána is carried out by the Civil Service Commission, while recruitment to senior posts in local authorities and health boards is carried out by the Local Appointments Commission. The Bill will repeal the Civil Service Commissioners Act 1956 and amend the legislation dealing with the Local Appointments Commission. The Bill proposes to create two new bodies, the Commission for Public Service Appointments and the Public Appointments Service. The Commission for Public Service Appointments will become the sole regulator for public service recruitment. It will set standards for recruitment to the Civil Service and public service and will monitor compliance with those standards.
In accordance with the policy of devolution of authority, public service bodies regulated by the commission will be allowed to undertake their own recruitment. This is a departure from the present system applying to the Civil Service and the Garda Síochána, both of which are now obliged to recruit though the Civil Service Commission. It will be a matter for the Garda Commissioner and the Secretary General of each Department to decide whether to avail of the opportunity to apply for a licence to recruit. If they decide to apply for a licence they will be able to recruit directly from the labour market without the requirement to use the centralised recruitment agency as an intermediary while following the standards laid down by the commission. However, if they decide to continue to use the service of a centralised agency, that option will continue to be available.
The commission for public service appointments will license public service bodies to recruit, according to clear codes of practice, on their own behalf or with the assistance of private sector recruitment agencies specifically approved by the commission. The commission will have the authority to alter or revoke a licence or to issue directions to a licence holder. These arrangements are designed to maintain the probity of the recruitment process.
The Bill also provides for the establishment of the public appointments service as the centralised recruitment body for the public service. The professionalism and expertise in public service recruitment that has been developed within the Office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners will now reside within the public appointments service. This body will continue to play a critical and vital role in the future of public sector recruitment and in future development of human resources management across the public sector.
The Bill is arranged in eight Parts and contains two Schedules. Part 1 provides for the dissolution of the Civil Service Commissioners and the Local Appointments Commissioners. It also allows the Minister for Finance to appoint a day on which the commission for public service appointments and the public appointments service will come into being and determines which public service appointments are covered by the legislation.
The Department of Finance and the Civil Service Commission are meeting to plan and implement the establishment of the commission for public service appointments and the public appointments service. The new bodies will share the financial and staffing resources which are allocated to the Civil Service Commission. A director will be appointed to head the office of the commission. An adequate number of staff of the Civil Service Commission will be seconded to the commission for public service appointments to set that body on a firm foundation, although the commission may opt to appoint its own staff in the long term. The remainder of the staff of the Civil Service Commission will be transferred to the public appointments service. It is intended that arrangements will be in place to allow the Minister for Finance to establish the new bodies by early summer 2004.
On establishment day, appointments to the Garda Síochána, to most positions in the Civil Service, and to certain managerial, professional and technical posts in local authorities, health boards and vocational education committees will be covered. Section 6 permits the Minister for Finance to make orders extending the application of the Bill beyond these appointments. However, certain appointments are excluded from the scope of the legislation and the Minister cannot make an order bringing them within the remit of the Bill. These include appointments made by the Government or the President and appointments to posts established under the Constitution. A number of other appointments are excluded, but the Minister may make orders bringing them within the remit. It is the Minister's intention to ensure that, in time, the overwhelming majority of public service posts will be subject to the system of regulation established by the Bill.
There have been comments that the Government is using the Bill to take power to appoint its own advisers to pensionable posts in the Civil Service. The Minister for Finance said this week:
The Government is not taking any power to appoint its advisers to pensionable Civil Service posts. There is nothing unusual in what the legislation intends, and there will continue to be a bar on appointments of the kind mentioned.
The Minister further explained that section 19(5) of the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995 states that appointments of special advisers to established permanent and pensionable posts in the Civil Service cannot be made using section 13 of the Civil Service Commissioners Act 1956. I am sure that the House will recognise that, as the new Bill repeals the entire 1956 Act, to reform the recruitment system, it is necessary to make new provisions to secure the continuing prohibition on the appointment of special advisers to permanent posts.