MAJOR PUBLIC sector reforms, including significant redundancies and the abolition of decades-old restrictions, are to be announced by Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan tomorrow.
Under the plan, a four-strong expert committee is to be ordered "to secure reductions in spending and numbers across the public service" and "to see if more agencies can be rationalised to give better value for money".
The Irish Times understands that the decades-old distinction between the Civil Service and other State agencies is to be abolished.
The distinction made it impossible up to now for workers in agencies such as Fás and others to transfer to jobs in Government departments, for instance.
Such demarcations helped to contribute to the Government's decentralisation difficulties, when vacancies in some organisations could not be filled.
A "unified" public service will allow "staff to move between agencies and departments", while more flexible rules will govern the redeployment of staff from unwanted posts. Future promotion will be competitive and based on merit.
A centralised National Operations Unit is to be set up to handle all purchases by the State in future, to "maximise economies of scale and get better value for taxpayers' money", while payroll, human resources and computer staff are all to be shared.
The redundancy scheme now being considered by the Government, to be imposed over the next 18 to 24 months, will be much more extensive than that which was announced by Mr Lenihan in the November Budget, when redundancies were limited to unwanted managers in the Health Service Executive. Setting the scene on Sunday for cutbacks, Mr Lenihan then said 10 per cent of public expenditure is borrowed, and that that had to stop.
The lengthy timescale for the redundancy programme has been defended on the grounds that it will take time to identify unneeded posts, and more time afterwards to agree terms with public workers' unions.
"You must have one before the other. There has to be a process that gets you to the numbers that will go," one senior source told The Irish Times last night.
The four-strong committee is understood to include Maurice O'Connell, a former governor of the Central Bank; economist Colm McCarthy; CIÉ executive chairman John Lynch; and former HSE executive Pat McLaughlin.
Following an examination by the Secretary to the Government, Dermot McCarthy, which was presented to the Cabinet last week, the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance have now decided that wide-ranging reforms of the public service are both necessary and possible.
In an effort to cut down on the paperwork faced by firms, State agencies are to be ordered to share information, where appropriate, and to minimise the number of times it seeks information from customers.
The package to be announced tomorrow by Mr Cowen and Mr Lenihan will order that no new agency can be created without a department being able to prove why the work cannot be done by itself or an existing agency.
A new single "lo-call" number for all Government services will be introduced, along with a charter of service for the public, while State agencies are also to be told to improve the way they inform older people about their services.
The four-strong experts' group has already been dubbed "An Bord Snip Nua" after the body set up by then taoiseach Charles Haughey in 1987 to identify cutbacks. Colm McCarthy, now a UCD academic, was a member of that first group.
Meanwhile, Minister for Energy, Communications and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan and Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey will also announce a plan tomorrow to encourage greater use of electric cars.
An eco-company, Betterplace, is to be offered significant tax breaks to come to Ireland and establish a network of outlets to let drivers power up during long drives.
