CROKE PARK DEAL:THE CROKE Park agreement is a "significant enabler" of change in the public sector, one of the country's top civil servants told the MacGill Summer School.
Robert Watt, who recently took over as secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, said the programme of reform must be accelerated. “Croke Park will be a success if it is used and if it is given the opportunity to show that flexibilities are there to reconfigure in a way which makes a difference,” he said.
On the Government’s spending review he said: “We are going through each line of spending again and asking quite a simple question: ‘Is this a priority for the Government in the context of the cutbacks in expenditure that are required?” If the item turned out to be a priority, the question was: “Can we deliver this service in a different way?”
Meanwhile, general secretary of the Impact trade union Shay Cody said: “If we are to transform our public services we need a set of goals and targets”.
“Most of us accept that our loss of economic sovereignty means that the practical options ahead will mean painful cuts and reconfigurations of services. But there is too little discussion about what public services we will deliver, now and after the recovery.”
Dr Eddie Molloy said he was “optimistic” about public service reform.
