Local power vital to reform, says Ahern

THE desire of Ministers and TDs to treat every significant decision as a piece of political patronage was a significant obstacle…

THE desire of Ministers and TDs to treat every significant decision as a piece of political patronage was a significant obstacle to public service reform, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, told the committee.

Giving decision making powers to local areas was a necessary part of reform, he said. "Central Government departments, especially Environment and Education, should set minimum standards. They should not have to approve in several stages every last detail of schemes around the country."

Changes in the Minister and Secretaries Act of 1924, which made the Minister directly responsible "for virtually everything that moves in their department", was also essential for strategic management.

He said that before the early 1980s, the State had succumbed to the temptation to overstaff public bodies in its enthusiasm to create jobs. "There has, naturally, been a danger in a country like Ireland, where the private sector has not been able to provide sufficient jobs, to try to create the jobs in the public sector instead."

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In the past, public sector pay was often responsible for the budget going badly oft course. However, this problem had been alleviated since 1987, when "social partnership and consensus" became central to the management of the economy and the public finances.

Blanket public service recruiting embargoes were "crude instruments and contrary to the whole spirit of reform contained in the Strategic Management Initiative. It is perverse, for example, for the Revenue Commissioners to be subject to a public service embargo".

Recruiting extra staff to the Revenue Commissioners would generate much extra revenue that would pay for the new jobs several times over. There was, therefore a strong case for separating those part's of the public service whose activities could fully cover their costs, and even make a profit, from those which did not.

He said the Strategic Management Initiative should make the programme manager system redundant. "While I accept the need for some political advisers, the whole system has mushroomed too quickly, is over elaborate and should be cut back."

. The biggest problem of the public service was that it had not focused on customer needs but on other objectives, such as social duties or job creation, said the former chairman of An Post, Senator Feargal Quinn. The public service had to begin to see the public as customers, "including the person queueing up for the dole. If we can manage to change that aspect, we can change the public service".