Reforming the Irish public service: A multiple streams perspective

Abstract

Following the Irish general election of 2011, a new ministry emerged which sought to combine public expenditure, industrial relations and public sector reform. The creation of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) represented a major departure in Irish administrative history, not least because it introduced a new actor at the heart of Irish government, but also for the range of tasks with which it was endowed. This article provides an administrative reform context for the creation of DPER before examining its work across three domains: industrial relations, financial management reform and administrative reform. Drawing on Kingdon's 'multiple streams' model of policy change, the article argues that reform efforts across all three were made possible by the 'window of opportunity' presented by the department's creation and the coming together of problems, policies and politics in respect of public service reform.

‘Double activation’: Workfare meets marketisation

“…Since then, LES have been contracted annually by the Department of Social Protection (DSP) on a 'costs-met' basis (Indecon, 2018, p. iii). In recent years they have also been subject to more intensive performance monitoring and measurement as part of a widening emphasis across government on performance management and on holding public services accountable for outcomes and costs (MacCarthaigh, 2017).…”

Government and Parliament

“…Indeed a number of recent academic studies have demonstrated the extent to which the executive has sought to manipulate existing parliamentary rules to enhance its own power and limit the ability of the parliamentarian to contribute usefully to decision-making. Muiris MacCarthaigh (2005), for example, provides a range of evidence to demonstrate how Dail Standing Orders (DSOs) have been constantly amended 'in a manner that increasingly secured the government's grip on the parliamentary agenda'.…”

“…As is the case with plenary structures, the executive seems to hold most of the aces. MacCarthaigh's (2005MacCarthaigh's ( , 2007 observations about the constraining impact on parliament of Dáil Standing Orders (DSOs) apply equally to foreign affairs. For instance, 'oral questions must be submitted three working days in advance, but the TD must wait until it is the relevant minister's day' which allows consultation with civil servants to prepare what is often a sparse statement read into the record of the Dáil by the minister, and more often than not providing obfuscation rather than clarity (Strom, 2003: 431).…”

Agents, ideas and microprocesses: What happens in the early stage of a public service reform?

“…In the public sector reform literature, researchers have successfully used the MSF to explain how individuals framed and progressed a reform agenda (Zahariadis, 2016;Zohlnofer & Rub, 2016), as well as how a particular government agency (Saetren, 2016;Zahariadis, 2016) or groups of nations (MacCarthaigh, 2017;Schön-Quinlivan & Scipioni, 2017) exercised both policy and institutional entrepreneurship.…”