Key Objective from Public Service Reform Plan 2014-16:

To further strengthen open, accountable and ethical governance arrangements in Ireland for both the operation of Government and the Public Service, with a view to building trust in Government and in the institutions of State.

Open Government Partnership

Ireland became a full member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in July 2014, reaffirming Ireland’s commitment to Governmental transparency and reform. Throughout 2015, work continued on implementing Ireland’s first OGP Action Plan. The Independent Review Mechanism of the OGP Plan reported positive findings in its review published in February 2016. In particular, the report found that of a total of 30 actions in the Plan, 23 have already been substantially advanced or fully completed at the mid-way point in the Plan’s implementation.

Open Data and Data Sharing

The Open Data initiative forms a core element of Ireland’s OGP Plan. The national portal www.data.gov.ie provides a searchable website for Open Data, together with a number of reports supporting the Open Data Initiative. Best practice standards have been developed, in the form of a Technical Framework to underpin the publication of datasets on the Open Data portal, and are available on the portal. Significant progress is being made under the Open Data Initiative, with an increasing number of datasets – across 14 categories – being published that comply with the Technical Framework. Currently, 1,314 datasets from 85 public bodies are available on the portal.

The Open Data Governance Board was established in October 2015 and has been mandated by the Government to lead and drive implementation of Open Data in Ireland. The priority now is to increase the number of datasets on the portal and to ensure datasets are of high quality in line with the Technical Framework.

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 Department of Public Expenditure and Reform transposed an amending Directive on Re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI), which reforms the regime on access to Public Sector Information in a number of respects.

Openness and Transparency

A key goal of the Freedom of Information Act, 2014 is to make information more accessible. To this end, following public consultation, a Model Publication Scheme was published in October 2015. Public bodies are required to put their own publication schemes in place by April 2016 in conformity with the Model Scheme, thus providing for a more proactive publication of information held by FOI bodies.

As new public bodies are established, they will automatically be subject to FOI unless they are specifically exempt by order made by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The Minister may also prescribe certain other types of entities, including private entities that receive public funding, as being wholly or partly subject to FOI. The FOI Act was extended to 66 new bodies in 2015.

In November 2014, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform issued new guidelines on State Board appointments, with a view to increasing openness in the overall process and transparency in the selection of appointees. Under these new arrangements, a total of 2016 appointments have been made on 53 State Boards since November 2014. As of the end of 2015, 45% of appointments under the process are women, thereby meeting a target set by Government as far back as 1993 (that 30% of applications came from women).

Ethics, transparency and oversight

The Public Sector Standards Bill, 2015 was published in December 2015. The purpose of the Bill is to enhance the existing framework for identifying, disclosing and managing conflicts of interest and minimising corruption risks across the public sector. In doing so, it will promote and support ethical conduct.

The Regulation of Lobbying Act, 2015 commenced on 1 September, 2015. The Act does not aim to prevent or inhibit lobbying but rather seeks to make the process more transparent. The Standards in Public Office Commission is responsible for maintaining the online register of lobbyists and it requires lobbying activities to be updated at regular intervals through each year.

The Statute Law Revision Act, 2015 was signed into law in July 2015. This Act revokes 5782 pre-independence Government Proclamations, Directions and Orders made prior to 1821. The Statute Law Revision Bill, 2016 was published on 25 January, 2016 and, once enacted, it will repeal spent and obsolete Public General Acts from between 1922-1950 (294 Acts in total). It is the sixth Statute Law Revision Act produced by the Statute Law Revision Programme, which has to date seen the review of 72,000 laws and the repeal of over 60,000.

Giving citizens a voice

The National Strategy on Children and Young People’s Participation in Decision-making (2015-2020), the first Strategy of its kind, was published by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in 2015. This Strategy commits to children and young people having a voice in their individual and collective everyday lives. This cross-government strategy is guided and influenced by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and contains commitments by a wide range of Government Departments and agencies in the Action Plan which accompanies the Strategy. To inform the development of the Strategy, a broad ranging consultative and evidence-based approach took place, which included a national consultation with 66,700 children and young people.

Action 22 of the Civil Service Renewal Plan includes a commitment to develop more open approaches to policy-making by involving greater external participation and consultation in policy development. Departments hosted 21 Open Policy Debates in 2015 on a range of policy themes with participation from experts and other policy interests. For example, the Department of Defence convened an Open Policy Debate in advance of completion of the White Paper on Defence. The audience comprised representatives from the political system, from Government Departments, from Irish and international think tanks and academic institutions, international organisations including EU, UN, NATO and other interested parties.

Public Participation Networks (PPN) were established in each Local Government area in 2015. They are organised according to social, environmental or community interests and have a participative role at both County / City level and Municipal District level. Each PPN has representation on the Local Community and Development Committee, the Strategic Policy Committees of the local authority and other local bodies.

Key Objective from Public Service Reform Plan 2014-16:

To enhance performance and accountability across all sectors of the Public Service.

Civil Service

The Civil Service Renewal Plan sets out arrangements for enhanced governance and accountability in the Civil Service. It also sets out a vision to provide a world-class service to the State and to the people of Ireland and affirms the values of the Civil Service including a culture of accountability, efficiency and value for money.

Underscoring these values, and to further the process of restoring public trust and confidence in the administrative system, a number of measures have been introduced in the Civil Service.

For the first time, an Accountability Board to strengthen accountability and performance across the Civil Service has been established. The Board is chaired by the Taoiseach and balanced with ministerial, Civil Service and independent external members who bring an external perspective to the role of the Board. The Board focuses on a limited number of priority items to provide oversight of the capacity and capability of the Civil Service to deliver, including performance management for Secretaries General and the implementation of cross-cutting priorities set by the Government. The Board held its first meeting in July 2015 and its minutes are published on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform website.

A central characteristic of effective accountability arrangements is knowing ‘who does what and to whom they are answerable’. For the first time these details are available for the Civil Service on www.whodoeswhat.gov.ie. This website sets out the responsibilities and accountabilities of senior managers, and is underpinned by the statutory framework for the assignment of functions from Secretary General level to officials within his / her Department in the Public Service Management Act, 1997.

A Corporate Governance Standard for the Civil Service was published in November 2015. It sets out a summary of good governance principles, and an adaptable Governance Framework, including provisions to be used in documenting each Department’s / Office’s own governance arrangements. The Governance Standard requires Departments and Offices, for the first time, to document and publish their governance arrangements in accordance with the principles set out. These arrangements set out how a Department / Office does its business, and why it does its business in the way it does and will be published in individual Governance Frameworks by the end of April 2016.

Updated Risk Management Guidance for Government Departments and Offices (2016) was recently finalised as a further development to enhance governance arrangements across Government Departments and Offices. The guidelines take account of developments in risk management including the International Standards Organisation (ISO) 31000, Risk Management – Principles and Guidelines.

Local Government

In the Local Government sector, the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) was set up to provide independent scrutiny of Local Government performance in fulfilling national, regional and local mandates. The establishment of NOAC is part of the reform process provided for in the Local Government Reform Act, 2014 and is a very significant development in public accountability at local government level.

NOAC has a broad ranging remit that extends to any function performed by a Local Government body. In 2015, NOAC published the 2014 Report on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities; a report on NOAC’s review of the adequacy of Local Authority Corporate Plans 2015-2019; and the outcome of a local authority housing tenant experience and satisfaction survey. During 2015, reviews commenced on the maintenance and management of local authority housing stock; local authority performance of their statutory functions in relation to the private rented sector; and aspects of the work of Local Enterprise Offices within local authorities.

Education Sector

An objective of the Higher Education Strategy is to ensure that the higher education system becomes more performance oriented, more flexible and more responsive. Implementation of the Higher Education Strategy is ongoing and involves the development of a new system of governance and a new performance framework to increase accountability of autonomous higher education institutions (HEIs) to enhance the performance and quality of educational provision throughout the system as a whole for the benefit of all.

The Systems Performance Framework 2014-2016 provides the basis for individual HEIs to tailor their strategic direction and to enable the agreement of performance parameters between the HEIs and the Higher Education Authority (HEA). A process of strategic dialogue was completed in Q1 2015 and all HEIs currently have an agreed compact with the HEA. Performance funding allocations for 2016 were decided in Q4 2015, based on performance against the compacts agreed with the HEIs.

In the Further Education and Training (FET) sector, a new funding model based on performance levels is being implemented through the agreement of annual Further Education and Training Service Plans between SOLAS and the ETBs. The first Service Plan was published for 2014 and the model was further developed and improved for 2015. Alongside the development of the 2016 Service Plan, a new performance approach is being piloted by SOLAS with 3 Education and Training Boards, based around the agreement of a series of ‘strategic expectations’ with an accompanying implementation plan and quarterly reporting. SOLAS is also evaluating each of the overall FET expenditure programmes, with the review of the PLC programme due for publication before the summer.

Health

In the Health Sector, an Accountability Framework was approved by the HSE Directorate and published in the National Service Plan 2015. This provides a level of clarity and transparency to the process of accountability which has not been there in the past.

A National Performance Oversight Group has been established and is in operation since December 2014. Performance Agreements have been signed and are in place with all Hospital Group CEOs and Chief Officers of Community Healthcare Organisations. An external review of the Performance Accountability Framework was completed in November 2015 and concluded that the Accountability Framework is well structured and understood. It makes 12 recommendations on how it could have greater impact in 2016 both for service improvement and for better value.

Justice

A comprehensive reform programme is underway in respect of policing and the operation of the criminal justice system. Key elements include the establishment of an independent Policing Authority on 1 January, 2016, which will provide oversight of all aspects of the delivery of policing services by An Garda Síochána.

A number of further reform measures have also been advanced including the strengthening of the powers and remit of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) in relation to complaints, investigations and other procedures and the Garda Inspectorate.