Launch of the Implementation Body Website by Minister of State, Dara Calleary T.D.

The Minister of State for Public Service Transformation, Dara Calleary T.D., today launched the website of the Implementation Body of the Croke Park Agreement. The Minister stated:

“The Croke Park Agreement has ensured that public services have been maintained and in some cases expanded despite very significant reductions in pay and resources. In cooperating with the Croke Park Agreement, the Government recognises that public servants have put the interests of citizens first.

I am pleased to launch the website for the Implementation Body, which sets out the achievements of the Croke Park Agreement. The information on the website will include quarterly reports on progress, including actual cash savings, costs avoided, improved and reformed services and internal efficiencies. The website will also indicate the further efficiencies and service reforms for 2011.”

The Minister outlined a number of the key specific achievements that have occurred under the Croke Park Deal:
The Government has saved €1.8bn from the public service paybill in 2010 with minimal industrial disruption.
Public service numbers have fallen by 12,000 (on a whole time equivalent basis) over the 18 months to autumn 2010, with a further 2,000 people leaving the HSE by end year under the voluntary exit schemes.
The fall in management grades has been particularly pronounced, with a 10% reduction in the civil service alone since 2008.
Teachers will be spending more time teaching because there will be fewer instances when teachers have to take time out for activities like training and parent meetings.
There is greater access to services on-line (24/7 365 days per year from people’s own homes) and more opportunity to access information about and interact with public services electronically, rather than having to take time off work and come in person to an office.

These achievements are just a small number of those that have occurred under the Croke Park Agreement – a more complete list is available on the Implementation Body website and in the notes for editors below.

Minister Calleary concluded by stating:

“The reforms under the Croke Park Agreement are ever more essential to help meet the unprecedented challenges currently facing Ireland and its public services. The test of the Agreement will continue to be the quantity and quality of public services that can be maintained or improved, in the context of falling numbers of public servants and reduced resource allocations.”

27th January 2011

ENDS

The Implementation Body of the Croke Park Agreement website is:
http://implementationbody.gov.ie/


Notes for Editors


Croke Park Agreement – Outputs to Date

1 Context & General

A major component of the cost of providing our public services is pay
In the context of the deteriorating public finances, a number of difficult decisions were taken by Government to reduce that cost, including,
in 2009, the non payment of proposed general round increases under the Review and Transitional Agreement and the application of a pension related deduction of an average of 7% to the earnings of all public servants
in 2010, a reduction of between 5% and 20%, depending on salary level, applied to the rates of pay and allowances for public servants under the terms of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act, 2009
New and less costly pension arrangements are to be applied to all new entrants.
Through the pension levy and pay cuts, some €1.8bn was saved from the paybill in 2010. For an individual public servant, the reduction in take-home pay averages out at 14%, with much higher reductions for the higher paid, e.g. 24.5% for Secretary General Level 2.
CSO figures confirm that, while average weekly earnings are falling across the economy, they have fallen faster in the public service than in the private sector.
Public service numbers are also falling fast - by 12,000 (WTE) over the 18 months to the Autumn of 2010, with a further 2000 people leaving the HSE by end year under the voluntary exit schemes. The fall in management grades has been particularly pronounced, with a 10% reduction in management grades in the civil service alone since 2008.
Most vacancies, caused by natural turnover of public servants who retire or leave, are not being filled, because of a general moratorium on recruitment and promotion implemented in 2009. In addition, a number of incentivised departure schemes have been applied to accelerate the fall in numbers.
Under the National Recovery Plan there will be almost 25,000 fewer public servants by the end of 2014, compared to the peak at the end of 2008.
By the end of 2011 it is expected that 75% of that reduction will have been achieved and-
Civil Service numbers will be 36,200 (2002 levels)
HSE numbers will be 105,300 (2006 levels)
Education numbers will be 93,300 (2010 levels)
Garda numbers will be 13,500 (2007 levels)
Defence numbers will be 10,500 (lowest levels to date)
Local Authority numbers will be 30,750 (2001 levels)

Despite these very significant reductions services have been maintained and in some cases expanded – particularly important at this time for the most vulnerable in society, including those who have lost their jobs and are dependent on the State at this time. Productivity has increased across the Public Service because we are getting more work for less money and fewer people.
It has only been possible to continue to deliver services with reduced resources because the Agreement provided a framework for co-operation between the Government and its employees. In the current circumstances, Government’s resources are necessarily limited and the stability, certainty and co-operation that the Agreement provides not only prevented industrial conflict but assisted the roll-out of a major programme of transformation that takes account of these resource limitations.
Since the Public Service Agreement was ratified in June 2010, many changes to the way in which public services are delivered have been implemented, with the agreement and cooperation of management and staff.
Some of these changes will save money and reduce the cost of running public services.
The public will also see a significant improvement in their dealings with the public service over the coming months and years because of some of these changes.

2 Some Outputs to date
The following are just some of the highlights to date:
Health
HSE successfully redeployed staff to address impact of recent 2,000 redundancies/early retirements at very short notice. Despite the significant staff reduction and any disruption caused by a high level of consequential redeployment, services continued to be provided without adverse effect.

Significant reform of the medical laboratories system, which processes tests for patients of the health service underway, with agreement secured on staff moving to a longer working day and, where needed, an extended working week and less costly on call and call out arrangements.

The health service ‘footprint’ is being reduced, with offices and smaller facilities closing or reducing and staff transferring to other facilities with consequential savings.

A single central unit for processing medical card applications has been established and an on line facility for applications available. This will result in savings and improved service.

A long-awaited National Procurement structure for the health system has been agreed with unions and the HSE, which will facilitate millions of euros of savings in services and goods purchased by the HSE.

1,000 Community Welfare Officers transferred from the HSE to the Department of Social Protection from January (2010)-2011. The Rural Support Scheme, community services programme and redundancy and insolvency payments have also transferred. Integration of these services will benefit people who are reliant on the Department’s support.

Education
Arrangements have been agreed and put in place for primary school (INTO) teachers to work additional hours outside normal school hours, so that necessary training, staff meetings and parent teacher meetings will not impact on teaching time for children and facilitate working parents attend teacher meetings.

Redeployment scheme for surplus primary school teachers agreed with INTO and in place so that vacancies can be filled and gaps avoided as teachers retire.

Redeployment arrangements for all non-teaching staff in Institutes of Technology and Universities agreed and in place so that staff can be moved to areas of greatest need.

More flexibility in the ways in which Special Needs Assistants are deployed to work with children in schools has been put in place.

Civil Service
500 staff redeployed from several Government Departments and civil service agencies to the Departments of Social Protection and Enterprise, Trade and Innovation to enable those Departments to cope with the additional work arising from the increase in unemployment.

The civil service footprint of offices and facilities is being reduced and staff redeployed, with the Courts Service closing many smaller court venues and offices and the Department of Agriculture re-organising its local office network and closing 41 offices. This will save costs and streamline the provision of services.

A new sick leave management regime has targeted a 10% reduction in sick leave absence across the Civil Service so that efficiency might be improved.

An outdated time accreditation system applying to some staff has been eliminated, resulting in an effective increase in working time of over 3 working days a year in some instances.

Senior Management in the Civil Service is changing. Senior managers will in future be redeployed across Departments as part of the Senior Public Service, widening the skills base at those levels. Where new appointments are made to Secretary General & Assistant Secretary posts in the Civil Service and equivalents in State Agencies they are filled by competitive interview open to all.

Appointments to the majority of any promotional posts in the Civil Service and State Agencies are made by competitive interview.
Prisons
A task review which will deliver significant changes to the working practices and rostering arrangements in prisons has commenced. Already less costly rostering arrangements have been implemented in Wheatfield Prison and Limerick Women’s Prison. This will improve the prison environment and save costs.

There has been co-operation with the downgrading of posts within the Prison Service at several grades which will reduce costs without impacting on the efficient running of prisons.

Gardaí
Revised rostering arrangements have been implemented for the Garda Traffic Corps, Special Detective Unit & Central Command Unit so that more Gardaí will be available at times when they are most required.

All Garda wages will be paid electronically in future.

General
State agencies are being rationalised, with some disappearing and others being merged to secure significant savings in back office functions, such as the merger of the Local Government Management Board and Computer Services Board (merged on an administrative basis pending legislation) and the Commission for Taxi Regulation merged with the National Transport Authority.

Inspectorates are being re-organised and streamlined in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food to assist in the provision of improved service delivery.

Departments are taking on more of the back office work of other bodies, with more Departments transferring their payroll and pensions administration to the Departments of Finance or Justice and Law Reform. This will create cost savings.

Savings of €7.5m on existing public service contracts above €100,000 in value were generated in 2010 by the newly established National Procurement Service, who also worked with Departments to manage their procurement within their reduced budgets.

Many Public service bodies are providing more services online. Examples include Environmental Protection Agency’s grant management system and Non-Principal Private Residence Charge. Their customers want these services online. 51% of vehicle owners now tax their vehicles on-line. 60% of people paid the NPPR on-line in 2010. In 2010 the number of people registering for PAYE Anytime online increased by 23%, from 497,502 to 609,570. By midnight on 16th November 2010, the tax deadline for electronic filers for 2009 income tax, a total of 323,259 income tax returns were filed on-line and 111,974 payments were made online, an increase of 8.96% on 2009 figures.

Public service bodies are reducing the documentation they ask from their clients, and consequently the requirement for staff to process paperwork. An example includes a joint initiative between the Courts Service & the Revenue Commissioners has reduced documentation relating to Capital Acquisition Tax (including both gift and inheritance tax) by 75%, improving and simplifying the service to the public at a difficult time in their lives and freeing-up customer service staff. Procedural arrangements between the Probate Office & Revenue have also been streamlined.


What to expect in 2011
In the coming year and to 2014, the Crooke Park Agreement will help us deliver the required quantity and quality of services with greatly reduced staff numbers and resources. To do that public service bodies will continue to change the way that they do their business.

There will be many changes that members of the public will notice. Some examples include:

Health services will be delivered differently, with a greater emphasis on meeting clinical standards, more services delivered in community settings and closer to peoples homes in deciding where and how services are delivered, fewer delays for tests, and care available closer to the community. There will be very specific programmes targeting the 5 chronic illnesses that account for 80% of health spending at present.

Teachers will be spending more time teaching because there will be fewer instances when teachers have to take time out for activities like training and parent meetings.

There is greater access to services on-line (24/7 365 days per year from people’s own homes) and more opportunity to access information about and interact with public services electronically, rather than having to take time off work and come in person to an office.

It will not be necessary to provide the same personal information to different Government bodies for services or entitlements.

Public offices will be open earlier or later, and when it is more convenient.

There will be more Gardaí available at times when they are most needed, at night and at the weekends.

Regulatory and inspection services are changing, with fewer but more joint and risk based targeted inspections.

The public service will have a much smaller 'footprint', with fewer offices and buildings.

The public service is getting better value when it purchases goods and services.

And above all the public will be receiving an improved service and the State better value for money.

All public service bodies have been instructed to report on progress, including actual cash savings, costs avoided, improved reformed services and internal efficiencies, on a quarterly basis with the first such reports after the first quarter of 2011. Progress will be published on this website as soon possible after that date.

None of the changes achieved to date or those envisaged in the future could have been achieved without the co-operation of the staff involved. The agreement, through the commitments given on job security and pay, creates a basis for this vital co-operation. That, in turn, facilitates changes that reduce costs and enhance the provision of services to citizens.
 

 

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