Public Services: Frontline Quality, Backroom Dedication

Our campaign "Public Services: Frontline Quality, Backroom Dedication" aims to defend Ireland's public servants, who are being unfairly criticised in an imbalanced debate about service quality and staff performance.

The campaign was launched by IMPACT trade union, which hopes other trade unions and public service users will join in. We want to debunk some of the myths about the numbers, performance and pay of public servants.

Of course, there are many shortcomings in our public services. But, while some criticisms are justified, services have changed for the better. For instance:

• Irish public servants are delivering more and better services as the population expands and changes
• Back-of-house administrative staff make up a tiny proportion of public servants - only 3% in the health sector
• Public servants have delivered substantial changes in work practices since benchmarking was introduced
• International surveys, from the OECD and Institute of Public Administration say Irish public servants are doing a good job.

And a recent ESRI report found there had been more workplace change in the public than the private sector, and that there were "few marked differences" in staff's willingness to accept change in the two sectors.

We want to see a more balanced debate about public service performance, which often focuses on the occasional spectacular failure, and then characterises all public services and all public servants on that basis.

Public servants have delivered better services to the public including:

• The population rose 8% between 2002 and 2005 while the number of public servants only increased by 4%
• The Revenue Commissioners customer base is rising by over 10% a year
• Motor tax renewals and passport applications are now delivered in days rather than weeks
• Hospital admissions and discharges rose by over a quarter between 1999 and 2004
• The numbers in third level education rose by nearly 14% between 2000 and 2005.