Written Answers - Social Partnership Agreement.
Richard Bruton
Ceist:
153
Mr. R. Bruton
asked the
Minister for Finance
his assessment of the impact of the modernisation agreement under benchmarking in providing output or service improvements sufficient to compensate for the cost of the remaining payments due.
[5444/03]
In responding to this question it is important to explain the context of the link between the implementation of the recommendations of the Public Service Benchmarking Body and the modernisation agenda set out in the public service pay agreement under the proposed social partnership agreement 2003-05, Sustaining Progress.
The recommendations of the Public Service Benchmarking Body were based on a comparison of pay and jobs across the public service and the wider economy. However, the body pointed out that change is accepted as an essential and ongoing criterion of survival, growth and prosperity in the private sector and said that the same considerations were a key requirement in the achievement of greater efficiency and effectiveness in the public service. Accordingly, the body said that implementation of its pay awards should be made conditional on agreement on issues of adaptability, change, flexibility and modernisation. The body further recommended that appropriate validation processes be established in this context.
As Sustaining Progress has only just been finalised, it is premature to assess the impact of the public service modernisation provisions that it contains in terms of output or service improvements. I can say, however, that securing improvements in the quality and effectiveness of public services is central to achieving the agreed objectives of Sustaining Progress. This is reflected in the large number of commitments applying to the public service in the agreement on co-operation with flexibility and ongoing change, satisfactory implementation of the agenda for modernisation, the maintenance of stable industrial relations and the absence of industrial action.
The implementation of these commitments will result in very considerable improvements in output and quality right across all sectors of the public service over the duration of the agreement which will also continue into the foreseeable future. Furthermore, the active pursuit by the Government of this modernisation programme to achieve better value for money is an important element of the anti-inflation initiative in the agreement. The Government's determination to ensure value for money is also reflected in the provision in the agreement that the payment of not only the final two phases of the benchmarking increase but also the general round increases of the agreement is dependent – in the case of each sector, organisation and grade in the public service – on verified satisfactory achievement of the commitments which it contains.
I am satisfied that the outcome of the improvements arising from the implementation of the modernisation commitments in Sustaining Progress will be a public service comparable in quality with that in any other country. This, as well as the rationalisation of the process of public service pay determination resulting from benchmarking, will be worth the cost of the pay increases involved.
