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F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 6 I s s u e N o . 4 3T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F B E T T E R G O V E R N M E N T
On The Move!
www.bet tergov. ie
Public
Service
Excellence
Awards
See Page 3
Public
Procurement
See Page 10
Any comments? e-mail us at: [email protected]
New CPMR
Report
See Page 4
Staff of the Civil Service Training and Development Centre (CSTDC), Dept. of Finance
2
ContentsEditorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
We Pay You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Public Service Excellence Awards . . . . . .3
New CPMR Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
New Benchmarking Body . . . . . . . . . . .5
Q-Mark Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Decentralising CSTDC . . . . . . . . . . . .6/7
Equality Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Improving Procurement . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Business Regulation Forum . . . . . . . . .11
RIA Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Editorial
There are plenty of interesting articles in this, the firstedition of LINK of 2006.
Many of you will have been eagerly awaiting news on thePublic Service Excellence Awards (see across). I am verypleased to report that the Selection Committee hasconfirmed the award winners. Congratulations to all of theaward winners and to everyone else who participated in theTaoiseach’s Awards to date. The Selection Committee had avery difficult task in selecting the award winning projectsand your support and participation for the Awards is verymuch appreciated.
The Civil Service Training and Development Centre(CSTDC) of the Department of Finance is in the process ofdecentralising from Ballsbridge, Dublin to Tullamore, Co.Offaly. Read about the challenges and opportunitiesinvolved on pages 6-7.
Other items that may be of interest include an update on atraining course designed for Regulatory Impact Analysis,the establishment of the Business Regulation Forum andthe publication by the Equality Authority of new Guidelinesfor Equal Status Polices in Enterprises.
There is also an article on the report from the Committeefor Public Management Research on PerformanceVerification and Public Service Pay. A short piece on the newBenchmarking Body, which is due to report in the secondhalf of 2007, is on page 5.
Congratulations are also due to the Child Benefit Sectionof the Department of Social and Family Affairs for beingawarded the Q-Mark recently (see page 5 also).
The National Public Procurement Policy Unit (NPPPU) inthe Department of Finance is responsible for developingpolicy in the area of public sector procurement. Find outabout the latest developments in this important area onpage 10.
Why not enter our regular competition (page 9), for achance to win a great prize.
Thanks to our contributors for this edition and yoursuggestions for content are always welcome.
Regards, Alan Plummer, Editor
Lo Call: 1890 227 227, Direct: (01) 619 4483
e-Mail: [email protected]
Did you know that you can earn €50
for yourself by sending us an article
for inclusion in LINK newsletter. If
you have a contribution to make to
LINK, send it to us. If we print it,
we’ll send you €50, it’s that simple!
So sharpen up your pencils and get
scribbling. Articles can be forwarded
to the Editor, LINK Newsletter,
Department of the Taoiseach, Upper
Merrion Street, Dublin 2 or by e-mail
We Pay You!!!
3
Public Service Excellence Awards 2006There has been a superb response to the PublicService Excellence Awards and the independentselection committee, chaired by Ms. MarianFinucane, had a very difficult task inselecting the winning projects. After aselection process, involving 153 nominatedprojects, the committee decided that theprojects below should be awarded a PublicService Excellence Award.
The award winners showcased their projectsin the Imperial Hotel in Cork in Februaryand are now looking forward toparticipating in the Public Service ExcellenceShowcase and Awards Ceremony 2006 in DublinCastle on Friday 31st March. The Dublin Castle
Showcase is an opportunity for representatives frompublic service organisations to share theirexperiences of change, innovation andproject management.
Three of the award winning projects will goforward to represent Ireland at the 4thQuality Conference for PublicAdministrations in the EU (4QC), which willbe held in Finland in September 2006.
As places at the Showcase are limited, earlyreservation of your place is advised. Contact Jacqueline Dooner,
Tel: (01) 619 4031 or by e-mail:[email protected]
Organisation Project
ComReg callcosts.ie website
Cork City Council Park and Ride facility
Crisis Pregnancy Agency Positive Options Project
Courts Service Commercial Court
Department of Agriculture and Food Animal Health Computer System (AHCS)
Dublin City Council Putting the Customer First
Galway City Council Ballybane Neighbourhood Village project
H.S.E. East Coast Area Slán Abhaile Project
H.S.E. North East Area Cavan/Monaghan Mental Health Services
H.S.E. North East Area The Newgrange Process – care for the terminally ill
H.S.E. Western Area Farmers Have Hearts - health screening programme
H.S.E. Western Area ‘Oro-motor’ speech groups for pre-school children
H.S.E Western Area (CROI) The Cardiac Club - community cardiac health
Irish Prison Service New Laundry System - Wheatfield Prison
Irish Prison Service Achieving Excellence in Food Safety and Food Management
Local Government Management Services Board Performance Management System for Local Authorities
Louth County Council Animal Care Compound - innovative design, build andoperation
REACH Agency Death Event Publication Service (DEPS)
Sth. Infirmary Victoria Univ. Hosp., Cork Pigmented Lesion Clinic - rapid access and diagnosis
Waterford County Council Best Practice Recycling
Launch of Report on PerformanceVerification and Public Service Pay
A seminar to launch a report by the Committee forPublic Management Research (CPMR) entitled“Performance Verification and Public Service Pay”,was held in Farmleigh House, last December.
The Report provides an assessment of theperformance verification process under SustainingProgress, which provided for the establishment ofPerformanceVerification Groups(PVGs) for the mainsectors of thepublic service, i.e.the Civil Service,Health, LocalGovernment,Education andJustice sectors.These groups areresponsible formakingrecommendationsas to whether thepay increasesprovided for under the agreement for public servantsshould be paid on the basis of whether there hasbeen:
� stable Industrial relations,
� co-operation with flexibility and ongoing change,and
� satisfactory Implementation of the modernisationagenda.
The study involved a comprehensive consultationprocess, which included interviews with theChairpersons of the sectoral PVGs and most of theindividual PVG members. Interviews also took placewith the sectoral PVG secretariats and the SecretariesGeneral from a number of Government Departmentswith key responsibilities in relation to performanceverification. In addition questionnaires were sent toapproximately 120 public service organisations togain their views on the process.
The attendance at the seminar included a largenumber of PVG members and DepartmentalSecretaries General. Presentations were made by a
number of speakers who provided valuable insightsin relation to their unique perspectives on the PVGprocess, including:
� Donal de Buitleir, Allied Irish Bank and Chairmanof the Civil Service PVG,
� Matt Merrigan, SIPTU and member of the Healthand Local Government PVGs; and
� Joe Horan,South DublinCounty Council andmember of theLocal GovernmentPVG.
The presentation byRichard Boyle ofthe CPMRhighlighted the keypoints to emergefrom the report. Henoted that thestudy found widesupport for the
broad structures and processes that have been putin place to manage the performance verificationprocess. He also outlined some of the mainrecommendations and conclusions reached in thereport. These included the following points:
� One of the most significant benefits ofperformance verification has been thecontribution it has made to industrial peace,
� A particular industrial relations benefit of theperformance verification process is that it is seenas acting as an incentive to sort out problems“below the radar”,
� Performance verification has had an impact interms of making things happen to a deadline,driven by the dates for the pay increases,
� Performance verification is making a usefulcontribution to flexibility, change andmodernisation in the public service.
Copies of the Report are available onwww.cpmr.gov.ie
Eddie Sullivan, Department of Finance , Matt Merrigan, SIPTU, Joe Horan,South Dublin County Council, Sara White, Department of Communications,Marine and Natural Resources,Richard Boyle, IPA, Donal de Buitleir, AIB
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On 13th January, 2006, a new Public ServiceBenchmarking Body, was established by Mr BrianCowen T.D., Minister for Finance. The BenchmarkingBody is due to report in the second half of 2007.
The new Body will examine the pay and conditionsof similar jobs in the public and private sectors andrecommend whether the pay levels for the publicservice should be altered. Launching the newprocess, the Minister for Finance said that “it isimportant that public service pay is in line with themarket – so that we can continue to attract highcalibre people who can provide excellent health,education services etc.”
This is the second time public service pay levelshave been benchmarked against those in theprivate sector. The first Benchmarking Bodyreported in 2002. The recommendations of the firstBenchmarking body were based on detailed researchinto pay and jobs in the public and private sectors.In order to examine jobs, the Body undertookdetailed job evaluations. This involves measurementof the demands and responsibilities of each job
being evaluated and a judgement as to the level ofcompensation involved.
Benchmarking is an alternative to the “relativities”approach to pay determination. The recent NESCreport (People, Productivity and Purpose) notedthat the benchmarking approach had yieldedsignificant benefits including:
� Industrial peace - by contributing to industrialpeace, benchmarking helped to create conditionsin which critical issues of service quality couldbe addressed;
� replacement of relativities - benchmarkingovercame the limitations of “leapfrogging” payclaims across sectors
� certainty - it replaced the system whereby payawards were made over several years by differentawarding bodies
� performance - 75% of the pay awards were madeconditional on cooperation with change andmodernisation.
Congratulations to the Child Benefit Section of theDepartment of Social and Family Affairs which wasawarded the Q-Mark recently. TheDepartment’s Quality Customer ServiceUnit supported the Section is attainingthe award. Excellence Ireland QualityAssociation (EIQA) awarded the Q-Mark inrecognition of the quality of the work ofthe Section. Assessment involves an
independent audit of a range of factors. The awardis open to both private and public sector
organisations and represents a fineachievement for the Child BenefitSection. You can read all about how theChild Benefit Section attained the awardin the most recent edition of theDepartment’s magazine, Social Affairs.
New Benchmarking Body
Q-Mark Achievement
The members of the Benchmarking Body are:
� Dan O’Keefe, S.C., Chairman,
� Billy Attley, former SIPTU GeneralSecretary,
� Olive Braiden of the Arts Council andformer Chair of the Justice SectorPerformance Verification Group,
� John Malone, former Secretary General of
the Department of Agriculture and Food,
� Tom McKevitt, former Deputy SecretaryGeneral of the Public Service ExecutiveUnion,
� Willie Slattery, Managing Director ofState Street International (Ireland) Ltd,
� Brendan Walsh, Emeritus Professor ofEconomics, UCD.
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6
CSTDC Decentralising ChalSupporting the Public Service ModernisationProgramme The Civil Service Training and Development Centre (CSTDC) ison the move to Tullamore in summer 2006 after more than 30years in Lansdowne House. Many readers will have, over theyears, spent challenging days in Lansdowne House learning newskills to enhance their own and their organisations’ performance.There is little doubt that the pace of change in the Irish publicservice has accelerated considerably in recent years in responseto increasing complex and demanding environments in which itoperates.
CSTDC supports the public service modernisation programmein developing core civil service skills and innovative training anddevelopment interventions. The move to Tullamore provides aset of challenges but also opportunities as CSTDC continues tosupport the public sector reform programme.
CSTDC has the primary responsibility for training anddevelopment policy in the civil service and works closely with aseries of high-level interdepartmental Networks and the cross-departmental Training and Development Committee insupporting civil service modernisation. CSTDC will commence itsoperations in Tullamore from 1st September, 2006.
VisionIn terms of moving to Tullamore, significant change alsopresents an opportunity to re-evaluate where CSTDC is goingand how it is going to get there. The vision for CSTDC is tocreate an internationally recognised centre for managementtraining and development and language training which willsupport the public sector reform process and the widercompetitiveness agenda in the Irish economy.
CSTDC has already commenced training in Tullamore in advanceof its permanent move. Akey objective will be tocreate and sustain anational presence inTullamore as the first stagein establishing aninternationally recognisedmanagement training anddevelopment and languagetraining centre.
The Primary Targets forCSTDC in the TransitionPeriod are:
1. Maintaining Business ContinuityThe overriding priority for CSTDC is to maintain businesscontinuity in the transition period. This means that CSTDC mustcontinue to deliver demand-driven training programmes forDepartments including new training and developmentinterventions. New products such as the Regulatory ImpactAnalysis programme and an Intercultural AwarenessProgramme have been designed in response to the demand tosupport the competitiveness agenda and to better understandthe dynamic and evolving nature of Irish society in a globalisedworld.
Maintaining business continuity also means ensuring transfer ofthe wealth of skills, experience and corporate know-how fromthe existing cadre of trainers to the new team. This process isnow well advanced with the majority of the new CSTDC teamnow in place. CSTDC is continuing to offer training programmesduring the transition to Tullamore. These include:
In terms of senior management development, CSTDC is
responsible for the Secretaries General and the AssistantSecretary Conferences. Restoration of the Principal Officers’Conference has been identified as a priority measure for CSTDC.Proposals are being formulated for a suite of developmentinterventions targeted at Principal Officer and Assistant Secretarylevel. The input of the cross-departmental Training andDevelopment Committee will be sought on these proposals.
CSTDC is also responsible for the sourcing, co-ordination,administrative support and evaluation of a range of innovativethird-level programmes including at Masters level. In addition,CSTDC manages the Assistant Secretary, Personnel Officers’,Departmental Training Officers’ and the PMDS Networks.
2. Meeting the Demand for New TrainingInterventions The article on the new Regulatory Impact Analysis course (page8) illustrates how well CSTDC continues to meet demand for new
Public Procurement Financial Management
Legislative Process Intercultural Awareness
Regulatory Impact Analysis Pre-retirement
Policy Analysis Freedom of Information
Capital Appraisal Guidelines The Line Manager
EU Meeting Skills
7
training interventions in the transition period. CSTDC will alsoshortly hold its first workshops on diversity and interculturalism.
3. Supporting Civil Service DecentralisationCSTDC finds itself in the unique position of providing supports todecentralising Departments whilst at the same timedecentralising itself. In terms of supporting decentralisingDepartments, CSTDC has approached this task at two levels.Firstly, CSTDC has produced a series of support manuals designedto provide practical advice and guidance to decentralisingsections and divisions. These include Job Guide – Guidance forManagers, Business Process Mapping and Learning New Jobs –Guidelines for Jobholders, Managers and Training Staff.
Secondly, CSTDC will continue to engage with decentralisingDepartments to identify and deliver training and developmentinterventions to support the decentralisation process. Advice andguidance of the Training and Development Committee and thePersonnel Officers’ Network will also be sought in relation tothese interventions.
Language Training Services CSTDC moving to Tullamore also presents new challenges andopportunities for the provision of language services. Howlanguage training is to be provided effectively, while beingdelivered from Tullamore, on a regional basis, is a keyconsideration. New imaginative and innovative business deliverymethods may be necessary. The changing demographic andcultural mix in Ireland and Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla 2003are significant changes in the operating environment. CSTDC islooking forward to devising new solutions to language servicedelivery from Tullamore while maintaining the broad mix ofexisting programmes and high standards of delivery.
4. Repositioning CSTDC as primary provider of seniormanagement trainingand developmentThe restoration of thePrincipal Officers’ Conferenceand other initiatives underdevelopment at PrincipalOfficer and AssistantSecretary level willcommence the process ofenhancing CSTDC’s provisionof quality developmentprogrammes for seniormanagement. The views ofthe Assistant Secretary and
Personnel Officers’ Networks and the Training and DevelopmentCommittee will form important inputs into the process.
StakeholderEngagementTo deliver its vision, CSTDCwill actively engage withstakeholders that have aninterest in the business. Thesuccess of CSTDC’s businesswill depend on how well itmeets the needs of itsstakeholders. It willcontinue to adopt aproactive approach todevelopment and delivery ofkey training anddevelopment products in association with its stakeholders.
The move to Tullamore presents new opportunities for CSTDC toengage with the local community, business interests and thethird level sector as well as re-energising contacts with existingnetworks and the Training and Development Committee. Theopportunity to engage constructively with the local communitywill be shared by many decentralising Departments. CSTDC hasalready engaged with the Athlone Institute of Technology inregard to identifying how the capabilities of that organisationcan be made available to CSTDC in the furtherance of civilservice modernisation.
As Departments become embedded in local communities underthe Decentralisation Programme they will have to compete withother employers for quality staff. Research clearly demonstratesthat, in a competitive marketplace, employees will chooseemployers who have a commitment and a sense of corporateresponsibility in how they engage with their staff, the localcommunity, the environment, clients and suppliers. Training anddevelopment opportunities will be a key factor in attracting andretaining staff to decentralised offices in particular.
Going ForwardCSTDC is determined to deliver quality training and developmentinterventions to our clients to address current and future needs.We look forward to working with all stakeholders to support thepublic sector reform programme and to deliver the vision of aninternationally recognised training and development functionfrom our new Headquarters in Tullamore.
For more information, see www.training.gov.ie
llenges and Opportunities
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The Equality Authority recently publishedGuidelines for Equal Status Policies inEnterprises. This publication is part of a seriesaimed at promoting equality issues inorganisations. Earlier publications includeGuidelines for Employment Equality Policies inEnterprises and Guidelines for Equality andDiversity Training in Enterprises.
The guidelines were produced by the NationalFramework Committee for Equal Opportunitieswhich was established under Sustaining Progress tosupport equality in the workplace. The purpose ofthe guidelines is to:
The publication is designed to address equalitypolicies in relation to the provision of goods andservices. It offers a step by step approach indeveloping an equalstatus policy andcontains very usefulreference informationon the Equal StatusActs.
Organisations maywish to note thatthis series ofpublications issupported by afunding scheme.Funding isavailable fororganisationswith less than 250employees to develop employmentequality policies; to provide equality and diversitytraining; or, to develop equal status policies on thebasis of guidance in these publications.
Further information is available from The EqualityAuthority, www.equality.ie
Pictured above are the first students who completed the Certificate in Civil Service and State AgenciesStudies. This is a NUI accredited programme run by the Institute of Public Administration that considers thechallenges, innovations and developments currently facing the civil service and state agencies, and providesa framework for understanding the wider process of governing in contemporary Ireland. The next Certificatecommences in October 2006. See www.ipa.ie for further details.
New Equality Guidelines
� Provide a rationale for the preparation of anequal status policy,
� Provide guidance on how to go aboutpreparing such a policy,
� Establish the areas the policy needs tocover; and how these areas could beaddressed,
� Identify materials and sources ofinformation and advice to assist inpreparing an equal status policy.
The prize for the first correct entry drawn is an i-PodNano, with two runners-up prizes of €100 and €50. Soget your entries to us by Monday, 27th March 2006. Andremember, you can now enter the competition online atwww.bettergov.ie
Competition Time
Send entries to LINK Competition, Public Service Modernisation Division, Department of the Taoiseach,Government Buildings, Dublin 2, giving us your name and contact details.
NAME
ADDRESS
TELEPHONE E-MAIL
The winner of the Competition in Issue 42 is Bernadette Kingston, Department of Social and Family Affairs.Bernadette wins the first prize of an i-Pod Nano. Runners up prizes go to Nicola Broughall, Chief StateSolicitor’s Office, who wins €100 and to Marie Kinsella, Department of Health and Children, who wins €50.Congratulations to all our winners.A total of 877 entries were received for the LINK 42 Competition.
The answers are: 1. Red, 2. Sleigh, 3. Scotland, 4. 153, 5. Coca Cola, 6. Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 7. Boxing Day,8. Ebenezer Scrooge, 9. New York, 10. 27 October 2005.
Issue 42 Competition Results
1. What date was the Business Regulation Forum established on?
2. How many projects will receive Public Service Excellence Awards?
3. CSTDC is relocating to which town under the decentralisationprogramme?
4. Which former international was recently appointed manager of theIrish senior soccer team?
5. What month was the CPMR Report on the Performance VerificationProcess and Public Service Pay launched?
6. Where will the 2006 Public Service Excellence Awards be presented?
7. Who chairs the new Benchmarking Body?
8. The All Island Public Procurement Conference and Exhibition takesplace on what date?
9. What famous GAA stadium plans to host international soccer andrugby fixtures in 2007?
10. How many Irish projects will participate in 4QC the 4th QualityConference for Public Administrations in the EU in Tampere, Finland?
A N S W E R S
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Improving ProcurementProcurement can play an important rolein achieving value for money in thedelivery of public services. Publicsector procurement may beconsidered by public servants to beabout compliance with EU procurementrules and tendering procedures. While compliance isimportant, seeking better outcomes fromprocurement effort is becoming a key component ofachieving value for money. The National PublicProcurement Policy Unit (NPPPU) in theDepartment of Finance is responsible for policy inthis area.
The key policy document is the National PublicProcurement Policy Framework, which supportsthe Unit’s programme of Procurement ManagementReform. Based on international best practice, theFramework’s main goal is to support thedevelopment of a more strategic and analysis-basedapproach to procurement across the public servicethat will deliver savings and better outcomes. TheProcurement Management Reform programmeconsists of:
The Framework also requiresDepartments and Agencies todevelop Corporate ProcurementPlans that contain targets to
achieve savings and value formoney objectives and identify the
purchasing strategies to realise these. Thedevelopment of these plans is supported by theNPPPU, which will continue to provide training formiddle managers on expenditure and organisationalanalysis through 2006. These are the key skills inthe development of effective purchasing strategieswhich aim to ensure that goods and services arepurchased at the right time, right price and for theright purpose.
The NPPPU has launched a new software evaluationtool, SUPREM (www.suprem.gov.ie), which hasbeen designed to help public sector organisationsdevelop their Corporate Procurement Plans.Organisations can use this tool by registering withthe NPPPU.
Enhancing ProcurementGood procurement practices already exist in thepublic service. The aim of the NPPPU is to build onthis good practice and bring a national focus to thebenefits of smarter procurement.
The Procurement Management Reform programmewill not only affect procurement officers and publicsector buyers; it will become a key part oforganisations’ business planning processes. Incountries that have developed their approach topublic procurement, it is at the centre of businessplanning alongside Finance, HR and IT to ensurethat the organisation as a whole gets the mostfrom its spending commitments. Raising the profileof procurement to such a level in public sectororganisations is a goal of the NPPPU and theNational Public Procurement Policy Framework.
As part of the drive to raise the profile of publicsector procurement, the NPPPU is jointly hostingan all island procurement conference with itsNorthern Ireland counterpart, the CentralProcurement Directorate and, InterTradeIreland(across).
For further information, visit www.procurement.ie
1 Capacity Building – to up-skill publicservants in the use of new procurementplanning techniques and put in place anetwork of expertise across the publicservice;
2 Training and Education – to underpin thecapacity building stream by developing asuite of courses, including 3rd Level, thatwill bring professional accreditation topublic procurement and support its long-term development;
3 Aggregation – to explore opportunities torealise cost savings through joint publicsector purchasing;
4 E-procurement – to underpin themanagement reform programme with theintroduction of cost effective procurementsystems that will deliver additionalefficiencies through using ICTs.
1 0
Deepening Dialogue with BusinessThe provision by the Civil Service of quality policiesand legislation, is highly dependent on the depthand quality of the analysis, research andconsultation that takes place in advance with otherGovernment Departments, interested public bodies,state agencies and customer groups. Individually,many Departments have long-established systems inplace to ensure that they can hold consultationmeetings with their regular customer groups todiscuss current issues of concern, or possibledevelopments under consideration.
The business community has well-establishedmechanisms for consulting with Governmentcentrally in relation to pay or industrial relationmatters, and with key Departments, such asEnterprise, Trade & Employment on specific mattersof concern. However, it has become apparent thatthere is a need for greater and more focuseddialogue with business to address their concernsregarding the amount of legislation and regulationsthat they must comply with.
Following from an announcement bythe Taoiseach in July last year, aBusiness Regulation Forum wasestablished on 2 November last bythe Minister for Enterprise, Trade &Employment, Mr. Micheál Martin T.D.This Forum comprises seniorbusiness and public sector members,and senior officials from the coreDepartments who have mostdealings with the businesscommunity - Enterprise, Trade &Employment; Finance; Taoiseach;Transport; and Communications,Marine & Natural Resources.
The Forum’s main role will be toexamine and report to the Ministeron particular difficulties that arebeing created for business as aresult of outdated, inefficient, ordisproportionate regulations oradministrative requirements. Theindependent sectoral regulators,such as the CommunicationsRegulator, the TelecommunicationsRegulator, and the FinancialRegulator, will also meet with theForum from time to time.
The establishment of the Forum isone more step being taken as partof the Modernisation Agenda, toensure that all new policy orlegislative proposals are effective,focused, and efficient.
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Published by Public Service Modernisation Division, Department of the Taoiseach, Government Buildings, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2. �Phone: (01) 619 4483 � Fax: (01) 619 4239 � E-mail: [email protected] � LINK and other SMI/PSM publications are available onour website: www.bettergov.ie and at www.irlgov.ie/taoiseach � Design and Artwork by Boyd Freeman Design � © Copyright Government ofIreland � Tá leagan Gaeilge (NASC) den iris seo ar fáil freisin � A Braille copy of LINK is available on request.
1 2
In the last edition of Link, we reported on a pilotTraining Course on Regulatory ImpactAnalysis (RIA) which took place inFarmleigh House in October. We arehappy to announce that an updatedversion of that course is now beingrun regularly as part of the TrainingProgramme run by the Civil ServiceTraining and Development Centre(CSTDC), Department of Finance. ThisCourse (organised in conjunctionwith the Better Regulation Unit)was held in January and will takeplace again in February, March andMay.
Expert PresentersThe Course is held over two consecutive days andbegins by setting RIA in a broader regulatorycontext. It includes presentations by distinguishedexternal speakers such as Professor Frances Ruane(TCD), John Sweeney (NESC) and Etain Doyle(formerly Telecommunications Regulator and now aRegulatory Consultant). They outline thebackground and purpose of economic and socialregulation as well as the rationale behind thecreation of independent sectoral regulators.
Course ModulesA number of detailed modules then cover the
application of RIA, running throughthe various steps involved in the IrishRIA model. This includes a session onanalytical techniques and another onthe application of RIA to EUregulations. The second day concludeswith a RIA Workshop where participantsget the chance to test their newly-honedRIA skills by applying RIA to a specificcase.
Who Should Attend?The Course is of relevance to officialsinvolved in regulation at national or EUlevel. It should be of particular interest to
those currently involved in developing the GeneralScheme of a Bill to which RIA must be applied.
There is already significant interest in the upcomingcourses so anyone interested in attending shouldcontact: Róisín Wiseman, [email protected] orVivienne Graham, [email protected] CSTDC as soon as possible.
Regulatory Impact Analysis Training
Vivienne Graham, CSTDC, Róisín Wiseman, CSTDC and Mary-Clare O’Sullivan, Better Regulation Unit, Dept. of the Taoiseach
