The publication yesterday of the document Delivering Better Government: A Programme of Change For the Irish Civil Service, represents a significant development in the gathering debate on public service reform. The report was prepared by those at the sharp end of Government day to day business; seven departmental secretaries and two other very senior civil servants. As might be expected, the tone of the report is mild mannered but its vision of a user friendly, cost efficient public service - in which civil servants enjoy more autonomy and are more accountable to the public - is ambitious and laudable.
The case for change of the type signalled in the report is persuasive. Successive governments have promised root and branch reform of the public service - both the 1969 Devlin Report and the 1985 White Paper, Serving the Country Better pointed the way forward - but the structure and ethos of the civil service are largely unchanged since the foundation of the State. These days, despite the best efforts of individual civil servants, there is a growing belief that the Irish civil service is unduly bureaucratic and not responsive to change. Few would dissent from the view that it needs to be reinvigorated: it needs to draw on the example provided by other jurisdictions, notably Australia and New Zealand, where a new public service model has been built that is more responsive to the needs of the public it serves.
It is good to see that yesterday's report is informed by much of this thinking; the description of those who use the public service as customers' strikes the right tone. There are also a number of sensible, well judged proposals which should be implemented without delay, including the introduction of clear strategic objectives for each department and a move to multi annual budgeting. The proposal to devolve much greater authority and accountability to the individual civil servant is also in line with international practice.
The report also suggests that much clearer demarcation lines should be drawn between policy making and policy implementation. Was not this the very touchstone of the Devlin report all those years ago? Civil servants should be accountable for their actions but they should not be held accountable for political decisions.
Given the declared all party support for public service reform, the support of many public service unions and the long standing personal commitment of the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, there must be grounds for optimism that the kind of change envisaged by the departmental secretaries will at last be realised. But the difficulties of imposing change on a large entity like the public service should not be underestimated. Radical change may only be possible when civil servants are clearly rewarded for good performance and when they are asked to accept full responsibility for poor performance.
The Delivering Better Government report hints at a new regime of performance related pay in which departmental secretaries would enjoy control of personnel and disciplinary matters. Introducing this kind of change is fraught with difficulties, not least the possibility of further industrial conflict, but the Government must not allow this to obstruct progress. As the secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Paddy Teahon, observed yesterday, the civil service has a stark choice it can adopt to the kind of change demanded by the taxpayer and society or it can languish behind.