SPEECH GIVEN BY DEPUTY RICHARD BRUTON TD
At IICM Awards
A high performance public service is central to all our ambitions for this country. Its reputation has been damaged in recent years. High-profile white elephants, promises unfulfilled, ambitious strategies that ended in failure, chaos in the public finances, poor use of technology, disastrous weakness of regulation – all have sapped public confidence and demoralised talented people who have committed their lives to the public service.
A major part of the responsibility for these failures can be laid at the door of political leaders – the payment of benchmarking without reform, the imposition of decentralisation without a strategic underpinning, cosying up to power, instead of holding it to account the willingness to buy out problems instead of confronting them, the irresponsible construction of big spending commitments on the basis of unsustainable tax revenues. It has done untold damage and foisted public servants with a system that is failing them.
However, it would be short-sighted not to recognise strategic failures outside the political arena also. Dysfunctional systems for implementing strategic change, weak management capability, a failure to commit to real performance testing or to accountability with consequences are problems in our system that cannot be laid at the political door. They have undermined the professional culture that is needed in our public service to meet complex challenges with very scarce resources.
The lazy habit of creating new agencies for every new problem grew up in reaction to the ineffectiveness of the civil service in responding to changing policy priorities. Typically these agencies were not given a clear policy direction, and their oversight and accountability remained weak. The process served further to hollow out the capacity of the public service, as scarce talent was dissipated across numerous policy silos with narrow agendas.
New Vision for the Public Service
Fine Gael is determined to restore pride to our public service and rebuild its capabilities. We have a bold vision of a sector delivering high-quality service to its citizens. It will be well led and well managed. It will be proud to stand over its performance. It will reward work well done. It will confront bad practices and under-performance. It will hold power to account without fear or favour. It will be responsive to the needs of users. It will offer fulfilling careers with the opportunity to excel. It will be innovative and at the forefront of best practice.
A strong public service must be built on a bed-rock of strong values. As it says on the tin, it is there to serve the public – meeting their needs, not the convenience of providers, serving the common good, not the demands of sectional interests. It will be frugal in its use of public money, not extravagant. It will embody the bed-rock republican values of the liberty, equality and fraternity of citizens. It will set professional standards for itself and demand professionalism from others.
A Task of Total Transformation
Ireland is fortunate to have attracted to its public service people of great talent and commitment. Many are frustrated and worn down by a system that does not fulfil their potential. Politics holds an essential key to release that potential. Only political will can fix the broken system that is trapping that talent. Fine Gael is determined to undertake the task of total transformation that is now vital. This time of crisis is a time to confront the changes necessary.
Without far-reaching change, the system will respond to crisis in the way that it has done so before – protecting bureaucratic systems, ignoring bad practices, hunkering down instead of meeting the challenge to reform head on. Ordinary people will be left to shoulder the burden. An unreformed system will simply cut service at the front line, reduce citizen entitlement and levy new taxes. Such an outcome would sell the country short and do untold damage to those who depend on public services.
A New Framework
We must square up to the challenge of delivering more with less. The transformation will require a new framework. The government must be explicit on its priorities. A robust fiscal code must be set to act as a backdrop to decisions. A new relationship between Ministers and their agencies must be forged. As the OECD illustrated, the proliferation of agencies has produced the worst of all worlds in Ireland. Weak oversight, vague mandates and constraints on their day-to-day freedom of operation inhibited innovation and professional performance but encouraged defensive turf wars. Parent departments atrophied in their capacity to develop new policy and to respond to new challenges.
Fine Gael will slim down the elaborate structure of agencies and has already lifted 135 mergers or closures that should be implemented. However, this will only be the start of the reconfiguration of the public service which is necessary. Government must distinguish core purposes, many of them cutting across traditional departmental boundaries where values and policy development are a central role of government, from routine processes where accuracy, precision and efficiency are paramount, but which do not have to be done in-house.
We shall consolidate administrative functions which are pointlessly replicated in one body after another which could be done much more effectively from one centre delivering shared services.
A New Way of Spending
The first and most vital instrument in the hands of the political system is to change the budgetary process. The demands of agencies for the money necessary to do what they have always done in the past remains at the core of our present Budget system. This determines the bill to be met and taxpayers have to cough up. The system has survived unchanged for decades. Underlying it is an assumption that everything that is now being done is perfect – reflecting the most important priorities, delivering in the most efficient way, and meeting the needs of citizens effectively. This is manifestly not the case as the Reports of the State Auditor demonstrates year in, year out.
Fine Gael is determined to rotate our budget through 180 degrees. In future the Budget will not be about the demands of agencies but about the needs of citizens. The pool of money that is affordable for spending will be set. Ministers will become procurers of services on behalf of the public. Agencies will only get money on the basis of what they commit to deliver, and only hold their money where their commitments are met and top priorities are served. This change in itself is an important instrument to empower ambitious managers and to rank priorities and emerging needs and to focus on genuine success in delivery. At times like now when money is short, under-performing programmes will have to give way and resources will have to be moved to top priorities. The McCarthy Report demonstrated how much of what is being done must be challenged. But this should not be a once-off exercise. It should be a permanent feature of the Budget process.
Open and Timely Reporting
Politicians have been the main culprits in seeking to duck an open attitude to performance measurement. Ministers wanting to shield themselves from embarrassment have foisted a culture of secrecy on the entire public service. That will now be shattered by a clear commitment that every agency that spends public money will be open and timely in reporting its performance. The empowerment that comes with information cannot be understated. People want to do well and make the changes necessary to have their success recognised. The public have a right to know how well their money is being spent and whether their local services are falling behind best practice.
Devolved Power
It is vital to match a system of open reporting and funding based on results with a framework that genuinely gives managers the power to manage. You cannot expect innovation and change if local managers have to refer every decision back up the line for sanction. International commentators have been withering in their criticism of the failure to genuinely devolve authority in our public service. You cannot expect major change agendas in Ireland to be managed effectively if the good intentions of Ministers have not been matched with effective policy instruments, designated leaders with the necessary authority and budgets to deliver. Fine Gael is determined to change that.
Managers must be given the tool box to deliver change and efficiency in their own organisation. This means having control over how their wage bill is spent. They must be able to release staff they no longer need. They must be empowered to confront bad work practices and consistent under-performance.
Accountability with Consequences
Along with devolved authority must go a system of accountability with consequences. The present strategic planning process systematically avoids setting targets that might be a true measure of performance and reports on activities rather than results. Even blatant failure has no consequences. Indeed inefficient units which provoke a crisis are more likely to win new resources ahead of well managed operations. Under Fine Gael’s proposals, there will be probing analysis of poor performance. The capability of management, the fitness for purpose of the organisation, the policies and practices will be under the spotlight and change demanded and supported with technical expertise.
To match the new devolved powers that managers enjoy, they will be expected to perform. More managers will be on contract. Bonuses will not be a standard entitlement as it became under the system that has been in place. Managers will have much more access to training and to technical support. However, consistent failure to deliver will not be tolerated and ultimately a manager who cannot shape up will have to ship out.
A Department Driving Reform
In order for reform to take hold and build momentum it is vital that we build a system of supports that can develop the capability of managers, can provoke change, can encourage peer learning and can maintain a constant pressure for improvement. The Department of Finance must take on a developmental role which it has entirely neglected. It must provide the vital catalyst to this reform process. Other countries have shown that successful change always requires a catalyst that sustains momentum and acts as an ally for the ambitious managers who are determined to make improvements.
A smart public service will not pretend that every activity has to be delivered by public sector providers. The identification of processes and activities that could be done better elsewhere is an important dimension of ensuring that money is best used and that priority services are not squeezed, particularly at a time of scarce resources.
It makes little sense that several public service Departments each replicate Entitlement and Payment systems, Regulation and Licensing Systems, Inspections and Enforcement systems. This involves wasteful duplication. However, no one in the present system is creating the momentum for developing Shared Service Centres in these and in many other areas like Financial and Human resources, where potential for savings exist. This dynamic role must be taken by an effective unit within the Department of Finance.
Users Shaping Choices
The users of public service have a vital role in shaping improvement in the delivery of public service. Provider-dominated thinking buttressed by social partnership has given consumers little or no voice. A new role for our consumers must be found not just in partnership models, but at the very core of our public services – rating what is delivered, shaping improvements and personalising the service to their own particular needs. This is one of the core strengths of Fine Gael’s radical reform of health funding. Money follows the patient and providers will only be paid to the extent they meet those needs. This concept of budget – holding clients cash can go much further.
Politics Stepping Up to the Plate
Soft option politics corrupted the capability of our public service. A new type of politics will be needed to buttress a culture of excellence and efficiency. Our political system has become content with a theatre where the battle is for the smartest sound bite. The ‘gotcha’ culture prevails over a genuine system of performance accountability. This breeds cynicism in the public service towards political leadership. It cultivates a conservative approach that avoids mistakes instead of exposing itself to the risk of innovation. Politicians have unwittingly colluded in the diminishing power of the Oireachtas. Its role in investigation, in scrutiny, in holding agencies to account, in adjudicating between competing interests has all dwindled. Too many people now doubt that politics is a place where their hope of change can be invested. At this time of crisis our political system too must demonstrate an ability to change and make itself fit for purpose.
