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Reinventing Government

The Challenge

Irish democracy is not in good shape. The national hangover caused by corruption in local and national government has yet to fade. We are further and further removed from how our tax contributions are spent. We are frustrated by the incapacity of an inflexible, centralised government to respond fast enough to real-life problems. As a result, citizens have disengaged from politics in large numbers.

At the same time, massive budgetary increases and the growing complexity of a globalised world mean that the need for accountability in government has never been greater. Yet we are stuck with 19th Century systems of administration to oversee and manage a 21st century country.

To take just one example, the Dáil is meant to oversee government spending and to check projects for 'value-for-money'. But the Dáil's spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, operates under a timescale whereby, in 2007, it will spend its time examining government accounts showing how money was spent two years ago, in 2005.

A major challenge is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditure programmes. Because Labour champions public service provision, we also champion public service effectiveness and efficiency. This is not code for public spending cuts. Effectiveness simply means the degree of success of a programme in meeting its objectives. And efficiency means the delivery of services at least cost in terms of resources used.

There is an 'efficiency dividend' to be reaped from reducing waste in the public sector. That dividend will be reinvested and will be used to deliver better public services.

Labour also insists that public administration must be informed by the principles of openness, transparency and accountability. These are not burdensome principles, designed to slow down or sidetrack the public service. They are the best and indeed only means of ensuring that citizens get all necessary information to assess whether best practice is being followed and whether value for money is being sought and delivered. We are convinced that the only effective and efficient government is one that is open and honest.

The current system dates from a more leisurely age and has failed to keep up with the demands of a modern state and with the citizens' right to know how decisions are taken on their behalf. We need radical changes to the structures and systems of administration, financial management and government accountability.

Ireland can do better

Labour will reform and enhance the democratic institutions of the state to promote engagement with politics, greater accountability of the executive and more effective and efficient public services.

What Labour will do

Openness

We will:

• Restore the Freedom of Information Act to what it was before it was filleted by the present government. We will also implement all the recommendations for reform of the Act made by the Information Commissioner. We will extend the remit of the Act - and the remit of the Ombudsman Act - to the Garda Síochána, the Central Bank and many other statutory bodies, and bodies significantly funded from the public purse, that are currently excluded.
• Introduce Whistleblowers' Protection legislation to protect those in public service who bring maladministration to light.
• Propose a referendum to reverse the constitutional amendment on Cabinet confidentiality, to ensure that the current almost absolute protection cannot be used to cover up necessary investigations.
• Repeal the Official Secrets Act, retaining a criminal sanction only for breaches which involve serious threats such as a threat to the international relations of the state, the conduct of a fair trial, or national security. A public interest defence will be available in such cases.
• Where the government relies in the Dáil on legal advice received from the Attorney General, as its reason for proposing or refusing to accept legislation, we will ensure that, subject to normal considerations of commercial confidence, national security and so on, summaries of the Attorney General's advice to government are made and published.

Transparency

What Labour will do:

• Introduce a statutory register of lobbyists and a statutory code governing the practice of lobbying.
• Bring in rules to ensure that senior public servants (including political appointees) cannot work in the private sector in an area involving a potential conflict of interest with their former area of public employment until at least two years has elapsed since their departure from the public service.
• Review the law on spending by political parties with a view to developing a more rigorous system, including spending limits for local and presidential elections, and to widen the time frames to which the spending ceilings for European and general elections apply.
• Given that it is not constitutionally feasible to abolish outright donations to political organisations, we will introduce legislation to restrict contributions to political parties and candidates to €2,500 and €1,000 respectively, and to require disclosure of all aggregate sums above €1,500 and €600 respectively.

Oireachtas reform

We will:

• Introduce a package of changes to bring about a 50 per cent increase in Dáil sitting days. Dáil Éireann will in future meet four days a week when in session and working hours will be significantly extended.
• There will be a summer recess of just six weeks and significantly reduced breaks at Christmas and Easter. We will abandon the practice of providing a "mid-term break" - a full week off at St Patrick's Day and Hallowe'en.
• Amend Cabinet procedures to require the general scheme of a Bill to be published as soon as it is approved by government, so that Oireachtas committees can debate and hold hearings on Bills at the earliest stage.
• Undertake a complete redrafting and updating of Dáil Standing Orders. The new draft will
• Confer on the Ceann Comhairle a specific responsibility for ensuring that the interests of all members and the public interest are fully and fairly protected.
• Oblige Ministers to ensure that questions are answered properly and fully (including an obligation to correct matters if the House is misled).
• Allow for "same day" discussion of urgent or topical matters, especially those involving a wide public interest.
• Restrict the use of guillotine motions and other procedural devices that prevent Bills from being fully debated.
• Allow far more interchange between members and make it obligatory on members, including Ministers, to "yield" to reasonable interventions and questions from the floor.
• Reform procedures for dealing with legislation, to allow more time for debate and participation at every stage.
• Private Members Time will be extended to include government as well as opposition deputies. All TDs will be entitled to put forward proposals for legislation and a lottery at the start of each session will determine which Bills will be debated. Party whips should be relaxed on such occasions.
• Extend Question Time, to increase the number of questions to be answered and debated in the Chamber and to allow written questions to be submitted directly to state agencies. In addition, written questions will be asked and answered during Dáil recesses.
• Significantly expand the work of Oireachtas committees dealing with scrutiny of EU legislation and regulations made by ministers.
• Following on the Supreme Court judgment in the Abbeylara Inquiry case, we will, if necessary, propose an amendment to the Constitution to ensure the Dáil is enabled to inquire into and report on any exercise of the executive power of the state or in relation to the administration of any public service.

Oireachtas inquiries

• We will establish an Oireachtas Committee of Investigations, Oversight and Petitions. The committee will be bi-partisan in structure and chaired by a member of the opposition. Its functions will be to:
  • Ensure consultation and collaboration between the Oireachtas and the Ombudsman.
  • Receive parliamentary petitions seeking the redress of grievances connected with the public services and with public administration generally.
  • Arrange investigation of issues of urgent public importance which demand detailed and thorough investigation.
  • Supervise an Office of Parliamentary Investigator.
• The Office of Parliamentary Investigator will have responsibility for ensuring the timely and cost effective investigation of issues giving rise to significant public concern.
• Persons would be appointed from time to time to this office, on the basis of specific contracts, to carry out specific investigations.
• The Investigator will perform functions similar to those carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
• The Investigator will have powers to require witnesses to attend and answer questions and to disclose and produce documents, together with power to enter premises and to take copies of documents.
• Evidence would be taken in private, as is done by Commissions of Investigation.
• The written reports of the Investigator on matters of established fact would be used as the basis for further investigation, by Oireachtas committees or by tribunals.

Ensuring Value for Money

Labour has published a detailed document entitled The Buck Stops Here, setting out a comprehensive set of proposals to end the waste of public funds that has characterised this government and to ensure the delivery of better, more efficient and effective public services.

The Estimates procedure

Our Constitution requires the government to prepare Estimates of the receipts and expenditure of the state for each financial year and to present them to the Dáil. The Dáil is then required to "consider" those Estimates.

Real and effective Dáil scrutiny, on behalf of the taxpayer, needs two things:

• A reliable and easily understood budgeting process that sets out the financial consequences of policies the government proposes to implement.
• A reliable and easily understood reporting (or management accounting) process, that sets out the consequences of the policies actually implemented.

Labour in government will bring forward the annual Estimates cycle, so that it becomes more timely and relevant. It will in future start at the beginning of the preceding year and conclude by the summer.

• The annual Estimates will in future distinguish between monies being allocated to maintaining the existing level of service for existing programmes and money to support new programmes or policy decisions.
• Proposals for new expenditure programmes will be accompanied by a five-year projection of costs and benefits.
• The Estimates will also distinguish between discretionary and non-discretionary spending, i.e., spending arising from legal entitlements which must be met (such as pensions).
• The Book of Estimates will be accompanied by a detailed performance report on what the previous year's spending had achieved. It will also give details of the level of performance achieved by agencies under service delivery agreements with government.
• Improved services for Oireachtas members will include dedicated resources for the proper scrutiny of the Estimates.
• An Estimates Commissioner, with strong powers, will be appointed within the Houses of the Oireachtas to manage the advance scrutiny of spending proposals, in the same way that the Comptroller and Auditor General scrutinises the outcome of spending after the event.

Public service reform

We will introduce a new basic law for government departments and the civil service.

• The legislation will specify the roles, functions, powers and duties of departments and the position of the minister in charge of each department.
• The new legislation will provide for a clear line of authority, responsibility and command. It will permit only the specific delegation of specific powers to civil servants, instead of the current practice of implied blanket delegation of all ministerial powers to all his or her civil servants, capable of being exercised without the minister's knowledge or authority.
• Civil servants exercising delegated ministerial powers will be, to the extent of the authority delegated to them, accountable both within the department and also directly and publicly accountable to the Dáil.
• Ministers will become responsible in law for the supervision and oversight of their departments, as well as for their own direct actions.
• The law will clarify the authority, responsibilities and accountabilities of Secretaries General of government departments.
• We will replace the existing rules which severely restrict civil servants in their answers to Dáil Committees with a system which reflects the reality of responsibility delegated to civil servants
• We will keep clear records of the decisions made by ministers personally, so that there can be no subsequent conflict, confusion or denial of responsibility on such basic matters.
• We will make ministers accountable to the Dáil for the adequacy of their oversight of all the agencies and public bodies under their remit.
• We will enhance the capacity of the civil service by:
• Introducing open recruitment for senior public service Positions.
• Introducing greater professionalisation of key functions.
• Equipping senior managers with a wider range of skills
• Linking performance pay schemes to high level targets.
• Expanding civil service training and education opportunities.
• Strengthening the internal audit function and augmenting its legal capacity.