Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 January 2014
232. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the total amount of outsourcing that has been achieved in his Department since the letter sent by the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in March 2012; the names of the outsourcing companies that have been involved; the total savings achieved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3306/14]
View answerThe letter sent by the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in March 2012 sought proposals for alternative delivery mechanisms of areas of work or processes within the Department or the wider sector. My Department identified three areas for alternative delivery models. One of these related to my Department and the other two, to agencies under my remit. These were:
- Transfer of the Department's aviation security functions to the Irish Aviation Authority
- External delivery of customer and production services for the new format driving licence
- Various outsourcing initiatives on the part of Fáilte Ireland
Substantial progress has been made on all three.
The provision of new credit card format driving licence has been outsourced freeing up roughly 200 staff in local authorities. While there have been some teething problems, the service is now delivered at no net cost to the exchequer with fees now covering the cost of the contracts. The Road Safety Authority (RSA) developed the structure of the new National Driver Licensing Service (NDLS) to consist of three outsourced elements, overseen by a specialist unit based in the RSA headquarters in Ballina. Following competitive procurement processes, the RSA awarded contracts in 2013 to SGS (front office provider to engage with customers); Abtran (Back Office provider to process applications) and CCS (Card producer of the plastic licences.
Failte Ireland has outsourced the inspection and operational elements of its Statutory tourism accommodation registration and grading functions to a private contractor. It has ceased its direct training activities in its training centres and now operates on the basis of engagement with institutes of technology and onsite training with industry partners. It has also outsourced a significant number of its third tier/smaller tourist information offices to Local Authority/community groups/chambers of commerce on the basis of a set of defined standards.
Responsibility for aviation security compliance monitoring was transferred from the Department to the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) on 1 January 2013. The IAA is a state-owned enterprise and receives no exchequer funding. The transfer of these functions was put into effect under the European Communities (Civil Aviation Security) (Amendment) Regulations 202.
In addition to the above, the Department’s Internal Audit Unit has contracted Capita Consulting for the delivery of internal audit services. The contract is for the performance of specific blocks of internal audit work to be assigned, as required, by the Head of Internal Audit and is not full outsourcing of the Internal Audit Function.
The primary savings to my Department from the transfer of the aviation security function to the IAA and the outsourcing of the Internal audit service is through reduction in staffing numbers equivalent to 9 staff.
