ANY ATTEMPT to reform the public service from a financial perspective must focus on health and education, which have the largest levels of staff and the biggest budgets, according to the Institute of Public Administration.
An institute report on public sector trends, published yesterday, says that even if all non-commercial agencies were abolished and their staff let go – a move it describes as untenable – it would reduce the exchequer pay bill by only about 4 per cent.
The research paper, produced by Richard Boyle, says the health and education sectors, between them, account for just under 70 per cent of public service employment and 75 per cent of the exchequer pay bill.
The report also finds that while the Government set a target in 1995 of having the most effective public administration in the European Union by 2010, the current data suggests that Ireland now ranks closer to the average than the best.
The report says that the growth in public spending, both as a percentage of gross domestic product and gross national income and in terms of public expenditure per head, is not sustainable.
It says this raises fundamental questions about what services the State should provide through public services.
However, it says the numbers employed in the public sector, as a percentage of total employment, are not excessive by European standards. It also says that there are signs that the control of the exchequer pay and pensions bill “is leading to a reversal of the increases which took place in the early to mid-2000s”.
The paper says that while Government departments fully met about two-thirds of the output targets they set for themselves in 2009, “the quality of output targets was generally poor with many targets lacking specificity”.
It describes many targets as being “vague in nature with poorly framed goals”.
The report says the Department of Health had the lowest success rate in meeting its targets.
However, it also says the department had the best-defined output targets, with most being clear, well-defined and challenging.
“The absence of hard data on productivity and performance is an ongoing concern for the public service.
“There are particular challenges, but the fact that we tend to have generally poor output targets is one indicator that there is significant room for improvement here. Output statements need to be transformed into performance statements that are a real reflection of performance and productivity.”
The report says that trust in Government and parliament has “fallen rapidly” compared with European norms since 2008.
“In spring 2010, Ireland expressed the third lowest level of trust in government of any of the EU 15 (21 per cent) and the second lowest level of trust in parliament (22 per cent).”