Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 February 2014
20. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reforms that have taken place since the PeoplePoint service became operational in March 2013 in the area of shared services; and if there have been or will be reductions in public service staff numbers as a result of shared services programmes, including PeoplePoint. [9304/14]
View answerShared Services is a key element of the Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016. Significant progress has been made in relation to Shared Services, both as a concept and business solution since the publication of the original Reform Plan in 2011. PeoplePoint, the Civil Service Transactional HR and Pensions Shared Services Centre, is the most advanced of our Shared Services projects. 6 more Public Services Bodies transitioned to PeoplePoint earlier this month.
There are now over 24,000 employees serviced by PeoplePoint across 19 Public Service Bodies. The remainder of the in scope Bodies will transition during 2014. At this point, the forecasted savings are €12.5m per annum with a reduction of 149 full time equivalent staff working in transactional Human Resources activities. PeoplePoint will also yield non-financial benefits including improved efficiency, consistency and service delivery.
The Civil Service Payroll Shared Service Centre, based in 3 locations: Galway, Killarney and Tullamore will consolidate and integrate payroll processes and practices from the 17 payroll centres currently providing payroll services to 53 Public Services Bodies. During 2014, 27 of the 53 in-scope Bodies will transition into the Payroll Shared Services Centre, over a series of two waves.
Garda and Prison Officer payrolls already transitioned from the Department of Justice and Equality late last year.
When fully operational, and providing payroll services to all 53 in scope Bodies, it is estimated that the PSSC will achieve savings of €5.6 million per annum. The Business Case indicates that the number of FTEs required to provide payroll services will be reduced by c. 16% (56 FTE).
In December of last year, the Government agreed that emerging EU and international requirements make an undeniable case for change and directed that the Financial Management Shared Services Project proceed to the next phase. The Project covers 48 Public Service Bodies, primarily in the Civil Service, Defence and Justice Sectors. The initial scoping phase of the project has already been completed and it is estimated that sustainable savings in the region of €14.6 million, or over 30%, per annum could be achieved once a shared services solution has been fully implemented. A Financial Management Shared Services Centre would allow transactional activities such as invoice processing to be managed in a streamlined way. It would also reduce the number of processing centres from twenty down to three. Estimations of expected staff savings will be validated during this phase of the Project.
I expect to return to Government seeking approval to proceed to implementation of the Financial Management Shared Services within the next year. Work is underway to record the savings in the costs of HR associated with the reduction in staffing required to deliver HR and Pensions services to the Civil Service and to capture the non-financial benefits associated with PeoplePoint. A consistent approach will be taken to the measurement of benefits across all Shared Services projects.
