The report, compiled by a committee chaired by Dermot McCarthy, the secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach, is expected to be considered by the cabinet in the next ten days. It is also expected to recommend a major expansion in the e-government programme to allow services to be delivered to the public in amore cost-effective way.
The taskforce, made up of senior civil servants and three outside appointees, was set up to examine the recommendations of a year-long OECD study of the public sector. It is expected to call for much greater mobility across the public service and for new approaches to managing performance and focusing on real service levels to the public.
While the report itself is not expected to recommend specific job cuts, the cabinet is expected to signal - when the report is published - that the economic downturn necessitates significant savings. The implementation committee is expected to be tasked with recommending specific measures across the public service.
It will examine staffing levels in all areas, as a prelude to widening the redundancy programme already planned for the administrative arm of the Health Services Executive.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen is understood to be committed to a long-term reform programme, which he hopes will lead to a real improvement in service delivery over a period of years.
However, the Department of Finance is also likely to be pressing for quick cost-saving measures.
The government last set up a committee to review public spending and recommend savings in the late 1980s.Made up of two senior public servants and an outside private-sector economist, it was christened ‘An Bord Snip’ and played an important role in getting spending under control.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Niamh Connolly and Cliff Taylor
Quelle/Source: The Sunday Business Post, 16.11.2008
