Thursday, 21
st June, 2012
Introduction
I am delighted to present the Taoiseach’s Public Service Excellence Awards.
These Awards recognise and reward projects and initiatives that enhance efficiency, quality and effectiveness of public services. They showcase what is best in the Public Service. All the recipients here today have demonstrated a clear capacity for innovation, a desire to make improvements, to provide excellent service. I am presenting 20 Awards. I understand that there were almost 190 entries: It just shows the effort and level of commitment across the system.
This ceremony gives me an opportunity to acknowledge that effort, to say how much I value the role of the public service.
I believe that the changes that this Government is putting in place will make for a smarter and better public service, better equipped to deliver top quality public services.
All of you here today understand the reform and change that is underway in your organisation and across government. You are keenly aware that sacrifices have to be made; the difficult choices facing us. As a Government we were presented with a difficult situation. However, I want to stress, the crises in the public finances was not the only reason for public service reform.
Our motivation was the belief that public service is about serving the public, about having quality services, about clear and transparent procedures, about people having freedom and authority matched by accountability. I believe the changes we are putting in place will enable the public service to play its central role in economic and social progress.
I think that it is important to acknowledge here today the significant levels of change that have already been implemented in the Public Service and the contribution that public servants have already made in response to the crisis – something which is all too often lost in public discourse. I believe that the vast majority of public servants are hard-working and dedicated, with a real commitment to public service. I am convinced that you want, and are embracing, change.
This readiness to step up to the mark was shown by how well the public service managed the impact of the February retirements this year. Some 8,000 staff left in the first two months of this year, yet front line services and key business process were maintained.
I chair the Cabinet Committee on Public Service Reform which provides political direction and accountability for reform. It is a key driver of the reform process. I continue to work closely with Ministers, in particular my colleagues Minister Howlin and Minister of State Hayes, as well as with senior public servants.
Building on the progress made to date, and achieving the dramatic level of change in the way we do business and in our work practices requires leadership. And by leadership, I don’t only mean Ministers and Secretaries General. Success requires leaders at all levels and in all parts of the Public Service. It requires individuals to take ownership and champion change, to see how their own work can be redesigned to be more effective and more efficient and to seek continuous improvement. This genuine commitment is reflected in today’s Awards projects and in the other 170 projects. That is really what we are rewarding today.
I want to say something about the future.
Of all groups in this country, the people here today appreciate the magnitude of the task that is facing us. We face into another very difficult budgetary process; difficult decisions have to be made.
Last week the Implementation Body for the Croke Park Agreement released its second Annual Progress Report.
The Report highlights many examples of a willingness to embrace new ways of working through redeployment and greater flexibility in many parts of the public sector. Real savings and real improvements have been achieved. It is clear from the Report that the public service is succeeding in "doing more with less" – the fact is fewer staff are working longer and harder to respond effectively to the greater demand for many public services during the current crisis. This should be acknowledged.
We have made a good start. The new Garda roster will match their deployment to times of peak demands; the reduced waiting times in the Emergency Departments, roster changes in the radiography and laboratory services; many changes across the education sector when student numbers are increasing but resources are not; streamlining local government has begun; major restructuring of the ways we are helping people who are unemployed return to the workforce.
There is a particular challenge for public service managers to lead this change by identifying where resources might be more economically deployed in a way that better fits with the needs of the citizens.
Only this kind of radical, systemic change of the entire public service will be sufficient to deal with the fiscal challenges Ireland faces.
I believe that the Croke Park Agreement will maintain the support of the Irish public only if it is seen as supporting other core government commitments in the areas of capital investment, service protection and income tax.
We must be more ambitious for greater change within the public service and the pace of reform needs to be accelerated.
I want to see public service managers push forward with even greater urgency to implement deeper and more far reaching reform under the Agreement in the period ahead.
Conclusion
In concluding, I would like to congratulate the successful projects receiving awards here this afternoon.
I would also like to thank Paul Reid and all the staff in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for their work in organising the Awards and today's conference. They have done a very professional job which is itself an example of high quality performance in the public service.
In particular, I would like to thank Danuta Gray and her selection committee for their efforts in what must have been a difficult task choosing the 20 winning entries from the nearly 190 put forward.
Thank you.
ENDS