Transformation agenda is top priority of managers - Calleary

SEANAD REPORT:THE MINISTER with responsibility for overseeing the Croke Park agreement said he had stressed to public service managers that the transformation agenda could not be treated as an "any other business" item.

Minister for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary said he wanted to reiterate the Government instruction to senior management across the entire service that the highest possible priority be accorded to implementing the agenda for change set out in the agreement.

“It was disappointing that a large number of departments missed the deadline for the submission of implementation plans. I am happy to say that they have all now been submitted.”

The delays were unacceptable and represented a bad start.

Addressing the concerns of some Senators that underperforming public servants were “hiding” in the system, Mr Calleary said the days were numbered for those who let the service down.

The sectoral implementation plans and the manner in which they evolved would be published online so that progress could be measured, he said in response to queries from Joe O’Toole (Ind).

Mr Calleary said that any party that had chosen to remain outside the agreement’s provisions could not expect to benefit from the commitments that had been given in relation to pay, redundancies and pension entitlements.

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Something “very murky” was happening in relation to an Oireachtas committee’s investigation into CIÉ, Shane Ross (Ind) said. The semi-State had been protected by the Government on several occasions. “The investigation has been frustrated by the absolute refusal of the non-executive directors to come in and give evidence about what happens . . . supported, may I say, by the Government.”

A much more serious development had arisen last week. A key witness was not being allowed to give evidence in public. To his credit, the Green member on the committee, Trevor Sargent, had withdrawn, but Fianna Fáil had voted down the request for the appearance of this witness, while people on the other side had already been heard in public.

Mr Ross said it was not acceptable that the House was not being allowed debate what was going on.

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The Government should call the bluff of senior Ryanair and Aer Lingus executives who claimed the travel tax was an impediment to the growth of tourism, Ciarán Cannon (FG) said.

“Let us scrap the tax for two years and challenge them to produce the numbers they say they can produce on their planes into this country every year.”