A NEW report on public sector reform drawn up by the OECD for the Government is expected to recommend that there should be greater staff mobility between the Civil Service, State agencies and local authorities.
The report, which was considered by Cabinet yesterday and is to be published next week, is understood to call for the development of a more integrated public service, with changes in human resource management, performance management and governance models.
It is also likely to propose a cautious expansion of performance-related pay schemes.
A draft report, seen by The Irish Times, suggests that a first step could be through team-based performance awards.
It also proposes that the Government could "replace discrete levels in the pay scales with pay bands in sectors and/or agencies that are deemed ready, and authorise departments or agencies to set individual pay within the relevant band".
The report also expresses concern at the implications of the Government's decentralisation programme.
It says that the plan to move a number of departments and agencies out of Dublin was changing the public service landscape.
"These changes have implications for the public service's ability to attract and retain skills, to maintain networks and a coherent approach to policy formulation and to maintain a common public service culture," it says.
The report maintains that in comparison with other OECD countries, Ireland has been able to deliver public services with a public sector that is relatively small given the size of the economy and labour force.
It says that the number of public service employees increased by 30 per cent between 1995 and 2007, but from a relatively low base.
"A policy since the mid-1990s to limit non-frontline service employment has meant that public sector spending and employment growth have not kept up with population and GDP growth," it states.
The report says that new ways of working will need to be found in the public service in order to meet increased expectations with reduced resources in future years.
It says that to attract and retain the best employees, the public service will have to supplement pay initiatives such as benchmarking with other incentives "including offering more managerial flexibility and problem-solving autonomy, more interesting career tracks and more concrete indicators of achievement in order to reinforce pride in public service".
The report says the high level of coherence in human resource management policies and conditions across the public service would normally be conducive to mobility of staff between the Civil Service, State agencies and local authorities, but in practice the movement of generalist public servants was limited as a result of union pressure and different contractual arrangements.
"Increasing mobility will require the public service to remove the traditional divide between the labour market in order to create a unified public service labour market."
It says that this step would reinforce overall performance by increasing promotion opportunities for good performers.
"The priority should go to the promotion of careers across integrated public service organisations - especially careers between agencies and central departments," it states.
The report also suggests that a new senior public service executive should be considered by the Government, which would facilitate the development of specific opportunities for careers across different parts of the public service.