OECD Public Management Review: Ireland

25/04/2008 - The first ever OECD Public Management Review, “Ireland: Towards an integrated Public Service", asseses reforms over the past 10 years, and looks at how the Public Service can work together better as an integrated whole in response to societal demands and the need to maintain competitiveness.
OECD’s Deputy Secretary-General, Aart De Geus will present the Review at a launch at 3:00 p.m. at Dublin Castle.  Also present will be the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen. For further details about this event, journalists are invited to contact Michael Moran, Department of the Taoiseach (michael.moran @t aoiseach.gov.ie;  tel: + 353 1619 4098).

Building on its success as one of the richest and fastest growing OECD countries, Ireland is the first country to ask the OECD to look at how public management reforms in areas such as e-government, human resource, budget and performance management can better reinforce each other  in order to allow the Public Service to perform better.
Among the questions investigated by the review are:

• Is the Public Service delivering value for money?
• How does Ireland compare with other OECD countries in terms of reforms achieved to date?
• How can the Public Service keep renewing itself to meet changing economic, demographic and social challenges?
• How can it continue to meet the needs and expectations of governments and citizens?
  

The review finds that a relatively small public sector has given Ireland a competitive advantage, but that it needs to make better use of its Public Service by allowing greater mobility for public servants, by increasing managerial delegation, and by reducing up front input controls in favor of greater accountability for performance and overall spending limits. The review – the first in a series – points to the value of examining reform from a whole-of-public sector perspective in order to promote efficiency, effectiveness and coherence.

The review will be available to journalists on the OECD's password-protected website at 12.00 noon Paris time (10.00 GMT) on 28 April and is under embargo until 16:30 Paris time (14:30 GMT) on that day. Requests for  a password to access the website should be sent by e-mail to Luisa Constanza (luisa.constanza @ oecd.org) in the OECD’s Media Relations Division.