OECD Review of the Irish Public Service

Foreword

This report is the first of a series of country reviews undertaken by the OECD to analyse the success and challenges of Public Service reform from a comprehensive perspective, taking into account the array of public service reforms conducted in Ireland since the mid-1990s. It seeks to deliver a high-level perspective on the preparedness of Ireland's Public Service for meeting upcoming economic and social challenges.

The report builds on OECD experience in conducting public management peer reviews. It draws on extensive review of information about public management in Ireland and a series of interviews with Irish public officials and other commentators held in 2007. The report was drafted with the participation of national experts from the the governments of Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand and Sweden. These public management experts played an invaluable role by participating in interviews and in reviewing and commenting on the text of the report. The report, which was completed in March 2008, was carried out under the auspices of the OECD Public Governance Committee as part of the work programme of the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV), and was financed by the Irish government.

Under the leadership of Odile Sallard, Director of GOV, and Barry Anderson, Head of Division, this report was led by Edwin Lau of the OECD Secretariat. The publication was written by Teresa Curristine, Edwin Lau, Olaf Merk, and Elsa Pilichowski of the OECD Secretariat, as well as Anna Lundbergh (VERVA-Sweden, on secondment to the OECD) and Audrey O'Byrne (Department of Taoiseach-Ireland, on secondment to the OECD). They were assisted by Jean-Francois Leruste (research and statistics). The report also benefited from consultant contributions by Jean de Kervasdoué, Peter DeVries, Christopher Pollitt and Colin Talbot. Special thanks to the New Zealand Policie Act Review team for their assistance in providing information on civilianisation of the New Zealand Policie Service.

Special thanks are given to the five national experts who reviewed the report text: Rob Kuipers (Netherlands), Hugh McPhail (New Zealand), Knut Rexed (Sweden), Juhani Turunen (Finland), and Adam Wolf (Denmark). The authors are also grateful to OECD colleagues who helped to review sector data and analysis: Gérard Bonnis (Environment Directorate), Howard Oxley (Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Directorate), Sebastian Barnes (Economics Department), and Ann Gorey (Government of South Australia on secondment to the Education Directorate).