Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 December 2012
188. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 237 of 4 December 2012, if he will provide a list of all new services across his Department that have been tested for external service delivery since March 2011. [55429/12]
View answerThe external delivery of services is one of the key areas highlighted in the Government's Public Service Reform Plan published in November 2011. Arising from a Government Decision in July, Departments are required, when evaluating any proposed new service, to include an appraisal of the costs and benefits of delivering the service using external providers. While, to date, no proposal for a new Department service has been considered under this provision, my Department is addressing the issue of external service delivery in the context of other initiatives underway across the Education sector, such as the use of aggregated procurement and shared services.
The work of my Department and of the wider Education and Training sector already includes the use of a diverse range of outsourcing arrangements relating to such areas as the school building programme, education and training courses at various levels, services provided for teachers and special needs assistants and a range of corporate functions for education providers such as ICT support, payroll, HR, waste management, cleaning and security.
