Key Objective from Public Service Reform Plan 2014-16:

To prepare, publish and drive implementation of a new ICT Strategy for the Public Service in collaboration with the Public Service Chief Information Officer Council.

The European Commission’s recent Digital Economy and Society Index ranks Ireland 8th out of 28 Member States performing slightly above the EU average. Ireland ranks 9th for digital public services, down one place on last year. eGovernment use is significantly above the EU average with Ireland ranked 9th for online service completion and 10th for open data, which is above the EU average.

Public Service ICT Strategy

The Public Service ICT Strategy, ‘Delivering better outcomes and efficiency through innovation and excellence in ICT’, was approved by Government and launched by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in January 2015. The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) is driving forward its implementation, working together with Departments and agencies across the Public Service. The Strategy consists of five streams – Build to Share, Digital First, Data as an Enabler, Improve Governance and Increase Capability.

When implemented, the Strategy will create a new model for ICT delivery in the Public Service and better outcomes for citizens, business and public servants through a more integrated, shared and digital environment.

In terms of Governance, the CIO Executive Council monitors progress on the implementation of the ICT Strategy and the OGCIO continues to work on policy development for the application of ICT across the Public Service. In terms of Increasing Capability, the OGCIO, in conjunction with the new Head of Civil Service HR and the CIO Council, is leading the development of plans to address recruitment, retention, mobility, and professionalisation of ICT staff in the Civil Service.

Build to Share

The Build to Share initiative in the ICT Strategy comprises three core elements: Government Networks; Common Applications; and Common ICT Infrastructure - the Government Cloud.

Government Networks offer cost-effective, resilient, carrier-grade, high speed network services for voice, video and data to all Public Service Bodies. Government Networks is a cornerstone of Build to Share as the service that enables secure inter-agency connectivity. Public Service Bodies in 70 towns and cities around the country now have access to high speed, resilient network connectivity and the rollout plan is for 50 towns to be connected by the end of 2016.

An ICT baseline exercise, carried out in early 2015, highlighted the potential for consolidation and rationalisation of ICT technical infrastructure to reclaim expensive real estate, lower computer room / data centre running costs and deliver efficiencies. Proposals to develop the Build to Share Government Cloud were progressed during 2015 and a range of procurement exercises will be initiated in 2016.

The ICT Strategy identifies an opportunity for a suite of common applications to be developed centrally for use by all Departments to drive efficiencies and savings. eSubmissions, a common application to manage submissions internally in Departments, has been developed and was successfully piloted with one Department in 2015. The OGCIO will continue to rollout this application during 2016, working with Departments to complete the on-boarding process. The development of two further common applications, ePQ and eCorrespondence, will be progressed during 2016. Further common applications projects, such as eFOI and eDocs, are planned for 2017.

As well as centrally led Build to Share initiatives, many examples exist in the broader Public Service. The Department of Education and Skills developed a project to improve the Post-Primary Online Database system. This resulted in a nationwide database linked to each post-primary school and is the first system of its kind in Europe. The project has facilitated greater efficiency and better communication between schools and the Department. By gathering real-time information from multiple sources, it informs important policy developments and the system is now utilised by all post-primary schools in the State.

The SOLAS Programme and Learner Support System is designed to produce data that will support policy formulation and inform programme planning to ensure labour market demands are met. In addition, the new database will facilitate data exchanges between SOLAS, the Education and Training Boards, the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Social Protection. It will also have the capacity to exchange data with other state agencies such as Revenue, the Higher Education Authority and Quality and Qualifications Ireland in the future.

The Local Government Sector, through the Local Government Management Agency, established the ICT Back Office. This provides ICT infrastructure for a range of shared services such as payroll, email, shared CRM, eReturns, Building Control Management System and Accounts Payable.

Digital First

As part of its modernisation programme, the Department of Social Protection (DSP) has moved into the delivery of online services. Since January 2016, customers are able to make an application for a jobseeker’s benefit payment online for the first time using the MyWelfare.ie portal. MyWelfare.ie is designed to enable clients to access personalised DSP services by creating a personal account. The portal has been operational since July 2015 and currently allows customers to book PPSN (Personal Public Service Number) and Public Services Card appointments.

The Office of the Revenue Commissioner’s myAccount makes it easier than ever to be tax compliant. myAccount is a single, secure and trustworthy online application, which provides access to services for taxpayers using mobile devices. This puts customer needs and experiences at the heart of its online capabilities, while also providing a highly secure service. This single access point was introduced in September 2015 and allows customers to access a whole series of Revenue services including PAYE Anytime, the Home Renovation Incentive, Local Property Tax, the eForm 12, myEnquiries, eTax Registration and eTax Clearance. There have been over 150,000 registrations and 1.2 million logins in the first six months of operation.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has developed an improved customer experience through exploiting advanced technologies. In 2015, the CSO launched their redesigned website to improve customer experience through the use of electronic releases with interactive High Charts, infographics and visualisation to improve communication and understanding of the data. All CSO statistical releases and publications are published in electronic format on www.cso.ie along with easy links to explanatory information and to further tabular information on the Statbank database. This is an online portal that makes CSO data and metadata more accessible to the public. The CSO has made all its data available under an open data licence with an emphasis on creating data that is reusable and that can be re-disseminated.

The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation launched the Integrated Licensing Application Service, licences.ie, in December 2015. The main objective of this project is to reduce the administrative burden on businesses who currently have to apply for a multiplicity of licences across a number of licensing authorities. This is done by providing a one-stop portal for application, payment and renewal. An outsourced provision of the service was followed on a Finance-Design-Build-Operate model under a Single Vendor Framework Agreement for a seven year period. Currently, there are a pilot number of licensing authorities using this service and this will grow to involve other licensing authorities as the system is rolled out.

The same Department has also developed a new online status enquiry facility for employment permits, which allows customers to enquire about the status of their application. An automatic response issues informing applicants of the current stage of processing and where possible, an indication of how much longer it will take for a decision to be made. This will be followed by the introduction of a new online application system for employment permits in Q3 2016.

The National Library of Ireland (NLI) is increasingly digitising its collections and making the digital resources available online. An example is the digitisation of the Catholic Parish Registers in 2015. Previously, researchers had to visit the NLI’s reading rooms in Dublin to use this genealogical resource. The NLI digitised the microfilms to produce 373,000 digital images and metadata and published them online free for use. The digitised Catholic Parish Registers was launched in July 2015 and has had over 6 million visits since then. In 2016, it was shortlisted in the Open Source category at the Ireland eGovernment awards and won the “Promoting Ireland Overseas” award.

By the end of 2015, over 93% (120,000) of all farmers had access to the Department of Agriculture and Food’s agfood.ie portal. In addition, some 105,000 farmers have registered their mobile phone number with the Department for information services and / or registered permissions for transaction services via mobile phone. Furthermore, there has been significant support from industry to the Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) system and all movements to livestock marts, export assembly points and slaughter plants are electronically recorded via web service links, with 6.9 million bovine movements recorded on AIM in 2015 alone.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland have developed an online mobile responsive website called MenuCal. This was developed with the input of chefs, caterers and small business owners. Businesses can register and use the online tool to calculate calories and to manage allergens.

The Building Control Management System (BCMS) was developed to provide a stronger system of design, construction and completion oversight by professionals in the building industry. There are now 30,000 users registered with BCMS, which also provides a single access portal for the submission of Commencement Notices and 7 Day Notices. The system allows real time statistical analysis for housing returns from a single dataset, with the ability to extract data quickly to provide information on national construction trends. Additionally, local authorities have benefitted from improved efficiencies by automating simple tasks and reducing administrative burdens. Phase 1 of the project consisted of the customer registration, e-forms and data management, monitoring and evaluation and the full automation of the completion certificate process. This Phase continued throughout 2015, with Phase 2 commencing in 2016.

Local authorities use www.fixyourstreet.ie as a cost effective way to enable citizens to report issues such as graffiti, road path defects, street lighting, litter, leaks and drainage and tree maintenance. This online service is hosted by South Dublin County Council and, in 2015, almost 15,000 incidents were reported using the portal, with an average response time of 3.12 working days.

The use of digital technology in the education sector continues to be a key policy objective. Initiatives include the successful rollout of 100mbps connectivity to every second level school in Ireland, the rollout of pilot “switch-on” workshops for second level schools to optimise the use of digital in the classroom and the introduction of the School Digital Champion Programme, which is designed to elevate digital skills and to facilitate project-based learning, innovation and the development of 21st century skills.

Discovering if your qualification achieved outside Ireland has a comparable qualification on the Irish Framework of Qualifications has become easier with the introduction, by Quality and Qualifications Ireland, of a new online service QSearch. People with qualifications from outside Ireland can now use this new online service to check the recognition of their qualification and to download a statement of comparability for use with Education Institutions and employers. To date, almost 700 qualifications from a large range of different countries have been listed.

Data as an Enabler: Identity Management

Access to public services continues to be enabled through the increasing take-up and use of the Public Services Card (PSC). Since late 2011, the phased introduction of the PSC has been underway with over 1.9 million cards now issued, including over 630,000 Free Travel variants. The PSC provides for robust personal identification and enables individuals to access public services more efficiently, reduces the possibility of theft, forgery and fraud and preserves personal privacy to the maximum extent.

The PSC is based on SAFE 2 registration which provides a significantly enhanced ability to detect fraudulent activity and realise savings. The data collected and verified during the SAFE registration is updated onto the Single Customer View system operated by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, providing a centralised identity verification service. Since March 2016, all first-time adult applicants for passports have to be SAFE 2 registered before getting a passport, meaning that they will need to have a Public Services Card.

The Department of Social Protection (DSP) launched a SAFE 2 compliant online Identity Access Management (IAM) system in February 2016 called mygovid.ie to facilitate online access to high-value DSP web self-service offerings. The IAM is also available to other public bodies to use for their online provision of services.

A Health Identifiers Programme is being progressed by the Health Services Executive in line with the Health Identifiers Act, 2014. This will see the introduction of unique Individual Health Identifiers (IHI) for individuals, healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations. An IHI Proof of Concept system went live in September 2015 consisting of 4.2 million records. It was designed and deployed for integration with three pilot healthcare settings, in advance of the design and deployment of the full IHI Register which will be implemented in 2016. The design and implementation plan for the establishment and operation of the IHI Business Service was completed in Q4 2015.

Data as an Enabler: Geo-spatial Services

Geo-spatial services present enormous opportunities for planning, environmental management, land registration, public health issues, forestry and land registration. Ordnance Survey Ireland is currently working with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on the development of a National Spatial Data Strategy. It is intended that the Strategy will deliver improved access to geo-spatial information for public services, business and citizens. The development of the Strategy is expected to be completed by the end of 2016, with implementation and rollout over the period 2016-2019.

METweb was developed by MET Éireann and allows individual weather forecast websites to provide targeted and tailored meteorological data to a range of public services, such as the Coast Guard. This allows up-to-the-minute information to be accessed by organisations via all modern media sources in any location, enabling better, faster decision making in critical operational areas.

The Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, has developed Tellus to best utilise digital geosciences for public benefit. Tellus has created an environmental snapshot of Ireland by merging digital geosciences into better health and agriculture resources by using airborne mapping systems and other available data. The data collected by Tellus has direct relevance for agriculture and environmental management in Ireland, enabling better management of health risks. Most recently, Tellus surveying has been completed in the north midlands region (2014-2015) and the eastern midlands region (2015). Longer term, Tellus aims to complete surveying the entire island of Ireland on a phased basis, with 50% to be completed by end 2017.

The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht launched a Geographical Information System for Gaeltacht Language Planning Areas in December 2015. The system is aimed at supporting the implementation of the language planning process in Gaeltacht areas. Under the system, census data for 2006 and 2011 is presented regarding Irish language usage by Electoral Division in the Gaeltacht. Provisional information provided by the Department of Education and Skills regarding the location and population of primary and secondary schools in respect of the school year 2014/15 is also presented in map format.

During 2015, the Health and Safety Authority developed a mobile application and enhanced data platform utilising Global Positioning System coordinates and Geographical Information System postcodes for use by workplace health and safety inspectors. This has improved efficiency in data collection and inputting, delivering productivity gains and improved customer service.

Data as an Enabler: Data sharing

The General Scheme of a Bill on Data Sharing and Governance has been approved by Government and legal drafting of the Bill is expected to commence shortly. The Bill is part of a series of actions to improve data sharing in the Public Service. More effective data sharing between public bodies can yield very substantial benefits to all users of public services. Important issues also arise in terms of data protection and data quality and integrity, and the Bill aims to address these issues.

Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) has introduced a single online facility to handle payments, claims and entitlements through one integrated system. The project utilises technology and real-time processing to share crucial information between the Department of Social Protection and SUSI to reduce the need for customers to visit both offices as was previously required.

A joint initiative between the Department of Social Protection (DSP) and Revenue is eliminating delays in responding to queries relating to PRSI contributions. This collaborative project involved developing a process to make Revenue customer information on over 320,000 cases available directly to DSP. Benefits delivered include a reduction in phone contacts between the two organisations and a significant improvement in DSP customer service through timely access to PRSI information.

Digital Engagement: Use of Social Media

The growth of social media presents enormous opportunities for the Public Service to communicate differently with citizens and is widely used across public service bodies. An Garda Síochána have been using social media since 2011 and since then expanded its use of social media across Twitter and Facebook to inform and engage with the public on key matters of public safety. This includes national and regional Twitter and Facebook accounts, with its main channels including a dedicated traffic information Twitter account @gardatraffic, a twitter account to demonstrate community-related activity @gardainfo and a Facebook page to showcase the organisation’s range of activity. In 2015, it had the largest social media audience in the Public Service of over 300,000 with high levels of engagement.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Twitter network currently includes 7 HQ accounts, 65 mission accounts and 14 Ambassadorial accounts, with over 200,000 followers worldwide. In 2015, the main HQ account @dfatirl alone generated over 7 million impressions. The use of Twitter during consular crises has been particularly important and successful for quickly providing details of incidents to citizens both in Ireland and in the country affected by the crisis.

The Western Development Commission’s Yeats 2015 project highlights the benefits of an innovative use of social media. The project received an Ireland eGovernment Award as a good example of how to use digital platforms in engaging audiences, particularly the diaspora and international followers. Initial estimates suggested the project reached in the region of twenty million people at home and abroad.

The Local Authority websites attract over 45 million visits per annum and all local authorities now use social media to communicate. In addition, the Local Government portal, www.localgov.ie, now provides a single point of contact for all local authorities.

Key Objective from Public Service Reform Plan 2014-16:

To improve the quality of interaction between the citizen/business customer and the Public Service.

Engaging with Customers

The results of the Civil Service Customer Satisfaction Survey 2015 were published in May and show that over three in four customers were satisfied with both the service received (77%) and the outcome of their most recent contact (76%). In addition, it was found that service levels are mostly meeting or exceeding expectations (83%).

Other research highlights included that customer contact via e-mail and online channels is rising, with telephone continuing to be an important channel; technology solutions and electronic communications particularly appeal to the younger age groups and certain social classes; interactions with staff continue to be rated positively; and advocacy levels have increased overall. While the results of the survey are generally positive, the survey also pointed to areas that can drive dissatisfaction such as aspects of telephone services that need to be addressed to improve customer satisfaction.

In addition to the overall Civil Service Customer Satisfaction Survey, many organisations conduct their own organisational level customer surveys and these inform ongoing changes to service design and delivery.

During 2015, Revenue developed and began implementation of a Customer Engagement Strategy 2015-2017, with the aim of boosting voluntary compliance, improving efficiency and enhancing the customer experience. Implementation of the Strategy is underway through a range of initiatives to improve engagement and inform service delivery. This includes, for example, the use of Customer Forums to obtain direct customer feedback, improved telephone services and the introduction of the myAccount online application. As part of their strategy, Revenue recently reinvigorated its use of business and PAYE customer panels to gain useful insights into service delivery and user experience of online services currently in development.

As part of the ‘Learning to Get Better’ project, the Office of the Ombudsman engaged extensively with patients and hospital staff in public hospitals (including voluntary hospitals) and identified good and bad practice in complaint-handling. They recommended ways in which hospital complaints systems could be made more accessible, responsive and effective and to apply the lessons learned from complaints to improve services.

Service Design is an emerging and innovative approach to improving public services by streamlining processes and improving the customer experience with the direct involvement of service users. During 2015, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform worked in partnership with the Northern and Western Regional Assembly and the Centre for Design Innovation in IT Sligo to support the application of service design principles to a number of pilot projects.

The Dolphin House Mediation Initiative enables a permanent mediator presence in Dolphin House, the principal family law venue for the District Court in Dublin. It promotes mediation as a way of finding resolutions to family disputes at traumatic times. It offers solutions for families while relieving pressure on the District Family Courts by encouraging parties to come up with their own solutions. Since the introduction of the scheme, over 1,700 agreements have been reached without recourse to contested court proceedings.

The National Disability Authority have developed ‘Universal Design for Customer Engagement’ toolkits which provide practical and useful guidance on how to use Universal Design as a tool for better engaging with customers in sectors such as energy and tourism.

In 2015, a Voice of the Customer process was initiated by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). This allows homeowners to provide feedback directly to the SEAI on how to improve the Better Energy Homes scheme and associated processes. This feedback is then considered by the SEAI as part of its ongoing work to continually improve the Better Energy Programme.

Plain Language

Plain language continues to be promoted across the Public Service to make interaction easier for service users. In 2015, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform sponsored training in plain language for public servants from 20 organisations.

Individual Departments also continue to promote the use of plain language. For example, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources have redesigned their website to plain language standard, making information more easily accessible. The Department of Social Protection has implemented the plain language principles widely across the Department and are improving the standard and consistency of their main application forms and customer communications. In the Health Service Executive, the registration form for free GP care for children under 6 was ‘Plain English’ approved by National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA), as was Revenue’s Home Renovation Incentive guide.

Service Improvements

Over recent years, the Department of Social Protection has implemented a wide range of service and policy reforms to help unemployed people secure employment and to improve service delivery. These include the rollout of the Intreo service at sixty locations around the country offering a one-stop-shop service in an improved customer service environment to clients, which was completed in 2015. It also includes the development and introduction of new service processes such as Jobseeker profiling and the launch of JobPath in 2015, a new contracted, payment-by-results, model of employment service delivery.

In 2015, the Passport Service issued almost 670,000 passports, which is 15% more than five years ago. This is being done with fewer staff and a much reduced overtime bill. Reforms which have improved service delivery and driven efficiency include online tracking of applications and the web based counter appointments system which has been introduced in their Dublin and Cork offices. In addition, the first Passport Card outside of North America was introduced in October 2015 and provides Irish citizens with increased convenience and flexibility. The Passport Service is currently implementing a wider reform project, with the aim of improving services, including through the proposed launch of an online renewal process for full passports.

The British Irish Visa Scheme (BIVS) was launched in China in October 2014 and extended to India in February 2015 allowing tourists and visitors to visit Ireland and the UK on a single visa. This initiative was conceived and implemented by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service of the Department of Justice and Equality, in cooperation with the UK Home Office. Since the introduction of this scheme, there has been a significant increase in the number of visitors to Ireland from both countries, aided by the sophisticated communication system with the ability to transfer biometric and biographical data with the UK when necessary. Almost 14,500 Irish BIVS visas were issued by Ireland up to the end of 2015.

The Private Residential Tenancies Board launched Telephone Mediations as a new and innovative dispute resolution procedure for landlords and tenants. This free service provides a dispute resolution process where parties are contacted individually by telephone and the Mediator facilitates the parties in coming to an agreed resolution within a short period of time. With 40% of applicants now seeking this service, there has been a 70% agreement rate and 92% satisfaction rate, with only 8% of parties appealing the outcome to Tribunal and very minimal non-compliance issues.

The approach to regional waste management planning has been rationalised by moving from 10 waste regions to a 3 region configuration, in line with the Local Government Reform Programme and national waste policy. Waste management plans are now flexible enough to take into account regional priorities but are also being coordinated at a national level. The regional waste management plans were published in May 2015, following a review of submissions received under a public consultation. The plans, which will run for six years, will be reviewed mid-term and represent a step forward for waste management in Ireland.

There is now a new online interface for all curriculum in primary and post-primary schools, curriculumonline.ie, allowing teachers to create their own customised plan and to track progress across the curriculum. Video examples of student work and classroom practice are available to illustrate learning outcomes.

Better access to services

Good access to primary care services is an important element of promoting a healthy society. Universal GP care was introduced in 2015 which covers all children under 6 and all persons over 70 respectively. Approximately 800,000 children and elderly are now able to access the publicly-funded GP service, without fees and without having to be means-tested to qualify.

The Healthy Ireland initiative to improve health and wellbeing continues to be rolled out. For example, the Public Health Alcohol Bill which addresses alcohol misuse was published in 2015 and the development of a first National Obesity Policy and Action Plan was also advanced in 2015.

The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme is a form of social housing support for people who have a long-term housing need, which aims to allow all social housing supports be accessed through one body – the relevant local authority. Over 6,000 households have been supported by the roll out of HAP since commencement of the scheme in September 2014 and will continue with a target of 10,000 additional households to be supported by the scheme in 2016.

An Garda Síochána launched a significantly enhanced victim support service in December 2015. The service prioritises the engagement, support and restoration aspects of the Garda relationship with victims of crime. All 28 Garda Victims Service Offices are operational since March 2015. This reform will enhance community safety, reduce the number of people who become victims of crime and, if someone does become a victim of crime, lead to a professional investigation to bring the perpetrators before the Courts, with progress communicated to victims.

The National Driver Licence Service (NDLS) provides motorists with a dedicated, customer-focused licensing service with 34 centres nationwide. The locations of the centres have been chosen to ensure that 95% of the population is serviced within a 50km radius of a centre. In 2015, the NDLS issued 560,000 full driving licences and learner permits. The next major phase in the service is to deliver an online capability, so that customers can apply for a licence online.

The National Car Testing Service (NCTS) introduced increased operating hours for the national car test in 2015, including 24/7 access in 3 centres in Dublin and Cork. This means customers can have their cars tested in the middle of the night or early in the morning Sunday to Saturday, which is proving especially attractive to customers such as taxi drivers and shift workers. Almost 1.5 million vehicles, the largest amount ever, were tested by the NCTS in 2015.

Business customers

The Small and Medium Enterprises Online Tool, supportingsmes.ie, was used by over 55,000 businesses and entrepreneurs in the first year of the campaign. The campaign is a cross-governmental initiative developed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs learn the full range of potential supports available to them.

During 2014, a system was procured and integrated into Companies Registration Office (CRO) systems to issue electronically authenticated digital certificates as legal originals to companies to replace the current printed versions. This system went live in respect of certified copies of documents in 2015 and will gradually be rolled out to all CRO certificates (mortgages, business name registration and incorporation). Businesses can now email this digitally authenticated copy to as many suppliers as required rather than purchasing several paper certificates.

The Health and Safety Authority has continued work on reducing the administrative burden on business with the extension of BeSMART to the Construction sector in May 2015. BeSMART is part of the Taking Care of Business programme and offers a free online risk assessment and safety service, which has substantially reduced administrative burdens and compliance costs for businesses. There are currently over 30,000 BeSMART users, of which 900 are within the construction sector and 180 in the Agribusiness sector.

The Trusted Partner Initiative, launched in May 2015, is a new form of registration for applicants of employment permits, which aims to streamline the application process and reduce the administration burden for applicants. There is now a faster turnaround, with status valid for 2 years, no fee, reduced paperwork for every permit applied for under the scheme and shortened permit application forms.

Revenue continues to focus on customer service and voluntary compliance with online services for business. The new and enhanced online / self-service channels such as eTax Clearance, eRegistration, myEnquiries and VAT Mini One Stop Shop has reduced the time and cost burden for business customers. In recent years, Revenue has pre-populated information on tax returns, making it easier for taxpayers to complete their returns.

Eircode, Ireland’s new postcode system, was rolled out in July 2015. This involved assigning a unique seven digit code, for example, D02 X285, to each address in the country. Adopting this design helped resolve the challenge of over 35% of addresses sharing the same address as another property, especially in rural areas, and properties in both urban and rural areas having multiple forms of address. In providing a unique address identifier, Eircode benefits businesses and public bodies as they can use it to help plan delivery logistics or services to communities. It also makes the delivery of services and goods to households easier, as well as facilitating the location of an address in an emergency. In order to encourage use of eircodes, a total of 80 million records in databases in 15 public sector bodies were encoded with eircodes.

Minimising the administrative burden placed on business respondents is a key priority of the Central Statistics Office. The Response Burden Barometer (RBB) is a measure of the total administrative burden placed on Irish enterprises and agricultural holdings by CSO surveys, when calculated on an actual compliance basis. The RBB for 2014 reduced by 26.4% since it was first measured in 2005, and when measured against the peak year of 2008, the RBB reduced by 38.8%.

Key Objective from Public Service Reform Plan 2014-16:

To deliver leaner, more cost effective and responsive public services, the Reform Plan is committed to enhancing the use of alternative models of service delivery across the Public Service.

Commissioning for Better Outcomes

Many human, social and community services are delivered through non-direct provision via the commercial, not-for-profit and community and voluntary sectors. Funding in this area has traditionally been provided through historical block-grant systems, which are often not evidence-based or outcome focused. The Reform Plan includes a commitment to develop a new Commissioning Framework for services, which will provide a strategic planning process linking resource allocation with assessed current and future needs to achieve best outcomes for service users.

A public consultation on Commissioning Human, Social and Community Services closed in mid-February 2016. This follows on from an Open Policy Debate on commissioning with stakeholders and experts held in October 2015 and the publication of an evidence review of international experiences with commissioning in December 2015. Following on from the public consultation, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, in collaboration with the Departments of Health; Children and Youth Affairs; and Environment, Community and Local Government, will formulate principles that should underpin a Commissioning Framework in Ireland and a transition timeline, which will be proposed to Government during 2016.

Benefacts

The website www.benefacts.ie was launched in June 2015. Benefacts is a new social enterprise, co-funded by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Ireland Funds, to deliver greater public transparency on the work and funding of the non-profit sector in Ireland, which encompasses almost 20,000 organisations that receive an estimated €4.4 billion annually in Government grant funding.

Benefacts will provide a single repository of financial, governance and other relevant data on the not-for-profit sector. This will include readily accessible and freely available data on the funding received by the not-for-profit sector, including details of all Government grant allocations. The first datasets under this initiative, covering data on non-profits for 2014, will be made available on the Benefacts website in May 2016.

Alternative models in use in the Irish Public Service

JobPath is a new approach to employment activation from the Department of Social Protection, in conjunction with external providers, aimed at supporting the long-term unemployed. The rollout of JobPath began in July 2015 and it is expected to be completed by mid-2016. Two companies have been contracted by the Department of Social Protection to provide JobPath services, which is a payment-by-results model and, as such, all initial costs are borne by the companies. Payment by the State is made on the basis of performance by means of referral fees and job sustainment fees. JobPath is structured so that the companies cannot recover their costs or make any profit unless and until they get people into sustainable jobs. The Department will refer between 264,000 and 440,000 jobseekers to the JobPath companies over the contract term. At the end of the first quarter of 2016, some 20,000 jobseekers had been referred to JobPath.

Since the introduction of Local Property Tax in 2013, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners has worked with an external contact management company to provide a high quality call service for customers. To date, the service has answered almost 2 million calls and has done so in line with Revenue’s customer service standards. The service provider has also demonstrated flexibility in meeting the needs of the Revenue Commissioners and is now capable of quickly increasing call capacity as the need arises.

Similarly, the Department of Social Protection partnered with an external provider in respect of applications for the Water Conservation Grant introduced in 2015. An external contact centre provided a service channel for customers with no internet access or bank accounts. The short time period for the grant required the centre to respond in a dynamic and flexible manner to meet peaks in demand. All of the performance and availability metrics agreed with the provider were met, even under peak load when over 34,000 calls were answered in a single day. In total, over 200,000 applications were dealt with via the call centre.

The Central Statistics Office is in the process of transitioning to using an external call centre provider for a new version of the Quarterly National Household Survey, which will be known as the Labour Force Survey. The call centre began making calls to households as part of the survey in April 2016. The Labour Force Survey and Quarterly National Household Survey will be conducted side-by-side during 2016, with the first publishable results from the Labour Force Survey expected after Q1 2017.

The Valuation Office is moving to an external service delivery model to complement its own internal capacity in carrying out the National Revaluation Programme of commercial and industrial properties for rating purposes. In order to facilitate this, provisions were included in the Valuation (Amendment) Act, 2015, which commenced in June 2015. The Valuation Office is now beginning the procurement process to engage a contractor to conduct all the stages of the revaluation process.

Teagasc has contracted out the completion of applications for farmer clients for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s GLAS scheme. They also contracted out joint delivery of the Beef Data and Genomics Scheme.

Debt management

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is leading a multi-agency initiative to improve debt collection levels across a number of public bodies. A review of debt collection mechanisms and protocols across five sectors – the HSE, Local Government, the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Courts Service – was published in 2014. A number of pilot programmes have commenced in response to this initiative.