Public Sector Reform in Ireland: Countering Crisis

305 Pages·2017·3.042 MB·English

by  Muiris MacCarthaigh (auth.)

G
EXECUTIVE POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE
P
E
PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM
IN IRELAND
COUNTERING
CRISIS
MUIRIS
MACCARTHAIGH
Executive Politics and Governance
The Executive Politics and Governance series focuses on central govern-
ment, its organisation and its instruments. It is particularly concerned
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ennial questions in political science and public administration. Executive
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such as how politics interacts with bureaucracies, how issues rise and
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Jennifer N. Brass, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
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Nick Sitter, Central European University, Hungary
Kutsal Yesilkagit, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
More information about this series at
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Muiris MacCarthaigh
Public Sector Reform
in Ireland
Countering Crisis
Muiris MacCarthaigh
School of History, Anthropology,
Philosophy and Politics
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, UK
Executive Politics and Governance
ISBN 978-3-319-57459-2 ISBN 978-3-319-57460-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57460-8
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During the Celtic Tiger years, with an abundance of resources, the need
to improve the efficiency of the public service was not as clearly seen as a
priority as it is now.
Ireland is clearly entering a period of prolonged fiscal restraint. In this
environment, major public service reforms are essential to help facilitate
adjustment in public administration and minimise service reductions to the
public.
—Wright, R. (2010) Strengthening the Capacity of the Department
of Finance (Report of the Independent Review Panel)
(Dublin: Department of Finance)
On the Irish side, the counterparts at both the technocratic and political
level were uniformly superb. They were knowledgeable, dedicated, smart,
funny and committed to tackling Ireland’s difficult situation. There are too
many individuals for me to mention by name and it’s invidious to single
out just a few so I won’t do so. These Irish public servants were true heroes
in how they dealt with the crisis in Ireland and Europe. The nation should
be proud of them and they should be proud of what they achieved under dif-
ficult circumstances.
—Evidence of A.J. Chopra, former IMF deputy director and lead
negotiator for the Irish loan programme 2010–13, presented
to Oireachtas Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis,
10 September 2015
A
cknowledgements
The origins of this book can be traced to a series of conversations with
Robert Watt following his appointment as Secretary-General at the new
Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) in 2011. My
interest in the ambitious reform agenda of the freshly elected govern-
ment was matched by his desire to capture the experience and lessons
of reform, warts and all. Together we mapped a way forward: he opened
the door to Irish government buildings and I undertook to document
and analyse how his Department sought to control the state’s public
spending after a deep and existential economic crisis, whilst also pursuing
the most ambitious public sector reform agenda in Ireland’s history.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and Queen’s
University Belfast subsequently agreed to co-sponsor a 2-year Public
Service Reform Research Fellowship which allowed me to undertake the
fieldwork for this book. This work was undertaken primarily over the
2013–2015 period, though data gathering continued right up to the
general election of February 2016. This insider access to an Irish gov-
ernment department in action is unprecedented and during the field
research I developed good working relations with the many public serv-
ants who, though unlikely ever to be household names, worked tirelessly
and made tough decisions that played no small part in the state’s very
survival.
And so my first thank you here must be a broad one and is extended
to the full staff complement of DPER for being so receptive to the
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
project. I am particularly grateful to members of the Department’s
Management Board for extending their trust at a time of extraordinary
challenge and uncertainty, and for always having an open door policy
when I came knocking. I must thank in particular Dermot Nolan and,
following his appointment as Irish ambassador to the OECD, his suc-
cessor David Feeney for acting as my contact point and for consistently
making helpful suggestions as to where I might find relevant informa-
tion and how I might best make sense of ‘village life’ in the civil service.
For obvious reasons, interviewees were afforded anonymity—only where
individuals were identified in the public record, or were happy to be pub-
licly associated with particular quotations in this study, are they named.
I am deeply grateful to each individual who gave freely of their time and
insights.
Minister Brendan Howlin was also generous with his time, and shad-
owing him brought a new appreciation of the considerable skill needed
by Irish Cabinet Ministers to juggle ministerial, party, departmental and
constituency responsibilities. My thanks also to Michelle O’Connor in
the Minister’s private office for arranging my ‘fly on the wall’ attendance
at a number of events and forums and explaining the finer details of how
Cabinet functions.
Particular thanks must be extended to Rónán O’Brien, whose inter-
est in Irish administrative and political history played no small role in the
project’s gestation, and smoothed the way to interviews with some key
informants. Sincere appreciation also to Patricia Scanlon in the Secretary-
General’s office for her unfailing assistance and advice with my many
queries and requests.
This project benefitted greatly from an Academic Advisory Committee:
I am indebted to Professor Niamh Hardiman (University College
Dublin), Professor Colin Scott (University College Dublin), Professor
Edoardo Ongaro (Open University), Professor Koen Verhoest (University
of Antwerp) and Professor Matthew Flinders (University of Sheffield).
Thanks also to those who took part in a number of academic–practi-
tioner roundtables and workshops in Dublin over the period of the study,
including Dr Thomas Elston (University of Oxford), Dr Kate Dommett
(University of Sheffield) and members of the Academic Advisory
Committee.
I am grateful to my (then) Head of School Professor David
Phinnemore for recognising the merit of the project from its inception,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
and being consistently supportive as it developed, including facilitating
the necessary research leave.
My huge gratitude, as ever, to my wife Anna who tolerated my
research trips to Dublin over several years, managed our small children
and the demands of her own career, and still found time to comment on
successive drafts.
Finally, I would like to sincerely thank Robert Watt for opening the
door of his Department to academic scrutiny, and for facilitating my
requests throughout. I hope this work goes some way towards realis-
ing his ambition for more informed and probing analysis of Irish public
administration.
Any errors and omissions are the responsibility of the author.
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 Political and Administrative Context 27
3 A Ministry for Public Sector Reform 59
4 Through the Window of Reform 91
5 Shrinking the State: Organisational Reform
and Rationalisation 127
6 Renegotiating the ‘Bargain’ 165
7 Public Expenditure Reform 193
8 Culture Reform 213
9 Political Reform 233
10 Conclusions 255
xi