The Public Service Agreement provides a framework for public service management and staff to work together to deliver an ongoing reduction in the cost of delivery of public services, while maintaining or improving the quality of services delivered to the public, in return for commitments on pay and security of employment for public servants.
The Implementation Body has been charged with driving the implementation of the Agreement across all sectors and ensuring that early, robust and verifiable changes are secured. The Body requested that they be informed on the changes proposed by public service management to achieve such efficiencies and savings in each sector in the form of Action Plans. Public Service Departments and Offices were asked to report on:
- Cost saving proposals
- Proposals which relate not only to improved services for citizens & business but also to maintaining services as appropriate in the context of significantly less staff.
- Proposals which may avoid costs being incurred in the delivery of public services
As part of the first annual review of the Agreement in May 2011, all Sectors, Departments, Offices and Agencies were instructed to provide Progress Reports on their Action Plans including details of actual savings, costs avoided, improved and reformed services and internal efficiencies. This material formed the basis of the Body’s assessment of progress in the first year of the Agreement and its first progress report published in June 2011.
A further update on the progress made on implementing Croke Park Action Plans across each sector in the period April to September 2011 was sought by the Implementation Body in October 2011.
Revised Action Plans have been developed in 2012 to reflect the outcomes of the Comprehensive Expenditure Review, the Government’s Public Service Reform Plan and budgetary strategy.
The Body’s second annual review of the Agreement required progress reports for the period Q1 2011 to Q1 2012 including details of savings and updates on commitments under action plans The Body’s assessment of the progress made in the second year (Implementation Body’s Second Progress Report) of the Agreement was published in June 2012