FG seeks investigation of Education Department after Cromien report

Fine Gael has asked a Dail committee to investigate the structures and performance of the Department of Education following a…

Fine Gael has asked a Dail committee to investigate the structures and performance of the Department of Education following a highly critical internal report by a retired civil servant, Mr Sean Cromien.

He identified a range of shortcomings in the Department and called for urgent reforms.

He said officials were so preoccupied with day-to-day business that they had little time to develop policy. He also said the Department was too centralised and needed to hand over some of its most important functions to outside bodies.

Fine Gael's education spokesman, Mr Enda Kenny, has written to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science asking that Mr Cromien be invited to give members a presentation.

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He said the Minister, Dr Woods, and senior officials should be given a chance to respond to points raised by Mr Cromien, a former secretary-general of the Department of Finance.

The Department has refused to release the report to the public, claiming it is for internal use, although several copies were placed in the Dail library on Friday. The Irish Times published extracts several weeks ago.

Mr Kenny said the committee should refuse to endorse this year's education Estimates until the Cromien report was dealt with. "This is one of the most serious reports on the Department ever written, and members should be given a chance to discuss it as soon as possible," he said.

The report has been passed to the Minister and the Department's secretary-general, Mr John Dennehy, and it is understood they are considering how the recommendations can be implemented.

Mr Cromien, in his report, states: "There is a widespread feeling across the Department that corporate governance should be improved and that this needs to be done at management levels throughout the Department. This was identified by top management themselves as a weakness."

He said that while staff numbers had recently been increased, further staff would be needed to implement the reforms. He also recommended that the examinations system should be contracted out to a specialist body.