The public service is failing to perform, is affected by scandalous restrictive work practices and must face a root-and-branch reform, Minister of State John McGuinness has warned.
"There is a growing feeling in this country that, with a few notable exceptions, public service systems are not doing their job," he told an Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland conference in Wicklow on Saturday.
Paying tribute to thousands of "good, honest, impartial and diligent" public servants, Mr McGuinness said "they are working within a system that has had its day. The world has moved on, and the public service must move with it.
"Public service reform is the elephant in the room that no one looks at for fear that Liberty Hall will fall on top of them. Well, the public is looking at it. Business leaders are looking at it.
"Liberty Hall does not have to fall, but it should pay attention," the Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment told the Druids' Glen conference which was attended by top business and public service chief executives.
Striking home his view that many public services are not fulfilling their job, the Carlow/Kilkenny TD said: "I believe that those systems are not serving the people who are working in them either. They are destroying the morale, and creating organisational apathy, supported by scandalous restrictive practices."
Public sector unions had achieved "extremely good pay and conditions". However, they should now, "for the good of their members, for the wellbeing of the economy", and in co-operation with the Government and others, help to convert the public service into "a vibrant, modern, efficient, accountable contributor in the drive to keep Ireland moving forward".
"I am not looking for a loss of job or any weakening of union power. I am calling for job enhancement, excitement and the creation of a can-do spirit which will convince our business leaders and the public generally that the State is working for them, rather than against them.
"I am calling for unions to help create this new order because it is in everyone's interests that they do so. Everyone in this room knows that the existing state of affairs cannot continue.
"It is a joke. You cannot run a high-powered economic engine on flat bureaucratic tyres," he told his audience, which included the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Frank Daly.
"Look at what is happening. It is not acceptable that the changing of a light-bulb should nearly close a hospital.
"It is not acceptable that public servants cannot transfer easily from a department or State body, where perhaps there is not a demand, to another where people are needed."
Criticising the payments of bonuses to public service chiefs, Mr McGuinness said: "it is not acceptable that bonus payments are handed out so liberally.
"In the private sector workers get paid bonuses only when exceptional profits are made. It is said that there is no profit in the public sector. But there is: in the goodwill, the support and approval of the public.
"By that measure alone, I doubt if there would be a long queue for bonuses. Public servants seeking parity with the private sector must surely accept that they just can't take the good bits.
"That applies to politicians, too. That is why the benchmarking process should be reviewed by an independent group drawn from the private sector," said Mr McGuinness, who is himself a successful businessman.