Ministers' ability hard to assess, IPA told

THE ANNUAL output statements produced by Government Ministers to account for their spending are lacking targets and data, which makes it impossible to assess performance over time, the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) annual conference was told yesterday.

Richard Boyle, head of research at the IPA, said the time had long passed where Irish public sector services could be exempt from the rigorous performance evaluation that took place in other countries.

“Since 2007, Ministers have had to publish an annual output statement as part of the budgetary process. These output statements are intended to give better information to politicians and the public on whether or not we are getting value for money from government spending. An IPA analysis of these output statements, compared to best international practice, has found notable weaknesses,” he said. “Specifically, there is little reporting on outcomes achieved, only a small proportion of quantitative indicators, and a relatively large proportion of once-off indicators that make it impossible to assess changes in performance over time.”

ESRI economist John Fitzgerald strongly criticised the Government’s decentralisation programme as a “disaster”, and said it was causing chaos in the public sector.“People who know about it cannot speak about it because they are public servants,” he said.

Staff dealing with climate change policy in the Department of Environment had “jumped ship” rather than be transferred to Wexford. “The whole knowledge in this area is going up in smoke,” he said.