Fine Gael, the main opposition party in Ireland have launched it's manifesto for government entitled “Reinventing Government”, which includes a major over haul of public services and aims to get the economy “back on track”.

If elected into government Fine Gael intends to abolish over 145 state body companies as well as dismantling the Health Service Executive and FÁS, the National Training and Employment Authority, in favor of more cost-effective alternatives.

Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny said that the party's proposal has three main objectives: “It will make our Government smaller, cheaper and better, this will mean in practice that we end up having fewer politicians, fewer bureaucrats and much fewer quangos eating into your hard-earned taxes.

“It will also deliver better services, more accountability from those in charge and greater transparency in the way government operates,” said Mr Kenny.

Some of the other proposals include:

  • Cutting the number of Oireachtas politicians by 35%, including 20 TDs, and abolishing the Seanad
  • Cutting the public service by 10% in general
  • Abolishment of 165 quangos
  • Recruiting external experts on banking, taxation and macro economic forecasting to the Department of Finance
  • Creating an independent council to advise the Dáil on borrowing levels, debt reduction, tax planning, among other issues
  • Targeting waste, duplication and inefficiency in public bodies to save over €5bn
  • Introducing a minimum target of at least 33% of all senior public service appointments from outside the current system for five years

Speaking at yesterday's launch, Fine Gael spokesperson for enterprise, Richard Bruton said one of the party's main aims was to increase efficiency in the public sector.

“Thousands of public servants are presently trapped in a system that is failing them. Fine Gael has a plan to make a step change in the way our public services are run that will reward effort and ingenuity and penalize waste and inefficiency.

"Ministers and senior civil servants will evaluate projects and take responsibility for outcomes while managers will be freed up to innovate and motivate their colleagues to serve the needs of the public,” he added.