Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016

1. Introduction

Public Service Reform has been a key element of the strategic response to the economic crisis since the Government came to office in 2011. In this context, the Government’s Public Service Reform Plan was published in November 2011. Building on the commitments to reform in the Programme for Government, the Reform Plan set out an agenda for the most radical reform of the Public Service in the history of the State.

Reflecting the lessons of previous reform programmes, this reform process has included a very strong focus on implementation and delivery. Good progress has been made in areas such as reducing costs, improving efficiency and enhancing service delivery. A summary of this progress is set out in the separate Progress Report that has been published alongside this plan.
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Now, two years since the first Public Service Reform Plan was published, the Government has decided that a new wave of reform should be developed to build on progress to-date and to refresh the current Reform Plan.

This has been done for a number of reasons:
  • a significant number of actions in the 2011 Reform Plan are now complete, as set out in the Progress Report;
  • in certain areas, a new set of actions have been agreed by Government e.g. in public procurement, following an external review;
  • in other areas, the original Reform Plan set out some initial steps to determine the best course of action and the programme of work in these areas is now clearer, e.g. external service delivery; and
  • reform of our public services should be considered as a dynamic process and consideration needs to be given on a regular basis to other areas that should be included.
The reforms committed to in this plan will impact on a broad range of stakeholders. This includes, for example, all service users, both citizens and business customers, as well as the public servants who plan and deliver those services and the political and legislative system. For this reason, this Reform Plan will be of interest to multiple stakeholders both inside and outside the Public Service.
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