NO STATE agency should regard itself as “immortal”, Minister of State Martin Mansergh has warned, as he made it clear that a significant number are to be culled.
“Our firm intention is to reshape our agencies and boards,” he told the Association of Chief Executives of State Agencies in Co Monaghan yesterday.
The Government’s proposal to merge the Human Rights Commission with several equality bodies and the Data Protection Commissioner has already provoked opposition from within State agencies and non-governmental bodies.
The Government, warned Mr Mansergh, “is determined to make progress in this area” and to cut administration costs. “Our public services have made a major contribution to this transformation. But we must also acknowledge that many more changes are needed.
“As we head into more difficult times, the task facing the public service is to ensure that it responds to the challenges ahead and can deliver more and better services in an altered fiscal environment,” he said. “The current economic circumstances now force change upon all of us.”
The OECD’s report earlier this year stated that there was “now an opportunity” to rethink the objectives and roles of State agencies and to merge some of them.
All departments, local authorities and State agencies were ordered before the summer to cut payroll costs by 3 per cent, and to halve consultancy costs to save €440 million this year.
“Further economies are now necessary, and all agencies will be expected to show leadership and initiative,” said Mr Mansergh.
Research by the Institute of Public Administration suggests, he said, that almost a quarter of agencies are carrying out what many would regard as the traditional role of departments, that of “providing advice”.
“Decisions regarding the rationalisation of agencies will take into account the role of Government departments as the primary locus of policy formulation, evaluation and analysis.
“Such decisions will also support and enhance the established model of ministerial accountability to Dáil Éireann, and to the Oireachtas as a whole, where outsourcing has sometimes led to a situation where decisions are perceived as remote from democratic scrutiny and control,” he said.
The Government’s review of all State agencies, whose spending has nearly doubled in five years, “will take into account the appropriateness of a separate agency carrying out particular functions”.
“While some State agencies are responsible for carrying out quite distinct functions, the multiplicity of agencies and boards has undoubtedly resulted in unnecessary duplication. This is a particular issue at local level where numerous agency offices are not only replicated across counties, but have analogous offices within county boundaries.
“Decisions regarding the rationalisation of agencies will be cognisant of duplication, overlapping and similarities in the functions.”
Mr Mansergh said that the creation of a citizen-friendly system of government requires that it “will be necessary to streamline agencies’ functions such that the functions of one agency should not overlap with those of other agencies or departments.
“This process will include departments and agencies developing communication so that the departments responsible for the development of policy can learn from the agencies and vice versa.”
