Ballina TD Dara Calleary has been handed the arduous task of implementing public service reform after Brian Cowen’s reshuffle of the Cabinet this week. While there was a lot of talk of Calleary getting a full ministerial portfolio in the lead up to the reshuffle, the Taoiseach gave him the role of leading the charge to reform the public service.
Minister Calleary was first elected to the Dáil in 2007, and was first appointed as a Minister of State in April 2009 with special responsibility for Labour Affairs in the then Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment which was renamed the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation in this week’s reshuffle, a portfolio he will still hold onto along with his new duties.
Minister Calleary’s new role will see him become a Minister of State in both the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Finance where he will head up the Governments plans for reform of the public sector.
Speaking to the Mayo Advertiser, Minister Calleary said that it is going to be a tough challenge for him but it is one he is looking forward to taking on. “It’s going to be a big challenge. I’ve been getting stuck into it already and have started to pull the bits together to get us up and running with the task that’s ahead of us,” he said.
With the current unrest among the public service unions over reduced pay and conditions the appointment to oversee the reform of the sector could see Minister Calleary being targeted as a bogeyman by the unions, but the Minster of State sees it differently. “I would hope not, this isn’t just about one single issue. The job I’m there to do is to change the public sector for the better for the workers and for the people who use them. It’s about making it a better place for the people to work in and to ensure that all the citizens of Ireland get the best possible service from them.”
Along with his new post Minister Calleary still holds onto his role as Minister of State for Labour Affairs and he acknowledges that he will be flat out from now until the next election. “I’m still in labour affairs, but without any of the FÁS stuff now which has been moved, so it’s all go. There won’t be much downtime for the next two years anyway. But this is a challenge I’m looking forward to taking on and doing the best I can at it.”
Jobs for the boys
Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony has hit out at the Cabinet reshuffle. “It’s jobs for the boys rather than jobs for the people,” he said. Dep O’Mahony was particularly scathing of the removal of employment from the title of the rejigged departments announced by the Taoiseach. “No Government Department now has employment or jobs in its title when the country is facing the worst unemployment crisis in a generation,” he added. “He could have combined all employment functions including benefits paid to adults of working age to a new department of employment and benefits.”
Dep O’Mahony also went on to belittle the new portfolio that has been given to his constituency colleague Minister Dara Calleary, saying: “Instead of public sector reform, we have a Junior Minister across three departments, combining it with his existing responsibilities as Minister of State for Labour Affairs. Alongside this we have a cabinet committee and a new quango — a Public Service Board. What a joke.”
