Issue 654
Public Affairs Ireland
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Welcome to PAI's weekly newsletter
This week’s bulletin of public sector news features?a range of topical updates including discussions around AI advances and how they may be beneficial to the Public Sector. We highlight the NCPC who have published a competitiveness scorecard report. Also can you balance a four-day working week. The government has requested the fast tracking of a law to appoint 21 Judges, and finally the Q1 report of the 2023 Climate action plan has been published.
Rapid advances in technology should be a major consideration in how to best provide a transparent, consistent and socially just society
At a time of full employment and a bulging fiscal surplus,?Minister for Transport and leader of the Green Party éamon Ryan has asserted that the State now needs to employ thousands more civil servants. In an Inside Politics podcast for this newspaper last week, he claimed there was a clear understanding and agreement between the Government, employers and unions that the State’s public services need to be scaled up to match the success of the economy.
This year is seeing an extraordinary revolution in technology, in my view quite possibly as significant a transformation as the introduction of the printing press in the mid-15th century. The capabilities of large language models, as exemplified by ChatGPT (from OpenAI), Bing Chat (from Microsoft) and Bard (from Alphabet), suggest inflection opportunities for most business sectors to innovate new products, streamline operations and ease staff workloads.
Mundane tasks can become more automated but, as importantly, we can be encouraged and aided to engage our intuition and creativity throughout the workplace.
The competitive consequences of artificial general intelligence systems are being actively debated across the private sector worldwide. Could the new technology also deliver public services at an even higher standard, with nationwide consistency and seamless integration of multiple agencies and bodies, reducing the need for myriad new job positions across the Civil Service?
Tuesday, June 13th 2023, 9.30-12.30, Live & Online
8-Day Programme, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24 and 30 May 2023
9.30 am-4.00 pm, Online
‘Seizing opportunities to undertake vital reforms is especially important in times of heightened global uncertainty’ – NCPC Chair?
Today, the Chair of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC), Dr. Frances Ruane, launched?Ireland’s Competitiveness Scorecard 2023?report. This is the first edition of the Scorecard published since 2020 when we were at that start of Covid-19. There are several new additions to the Scorecard for 2023. These include measures of innovation, industrial peace, income inequality, and data on land use, among others. These additions allow the Scorecard to capture and benchmark Ireland’s performance across a wide range of both economic and non-economic criteria.
?The data in the Scorecard indicate certain relative strengths and weaknesses influencing our competitiveness position today. These in turn support or impair Ireland’s ability to achieve sustainable economic growth. The report flags areas that are negatively impacting Ireland’s competitiveness, and where Ireland’s relative position is not keeping pace with its competitors.
?On launching the report Dr. Ruane said: “The data in the Scorecard show that, overall, the Irish economy remains internationally competitive. However, there are still several critical areas where Ireland currently falls behind the countries against which we benchmark ourselves; improvements in these areas could see Ireland maintain or increase its competitiveness in the years ahead, thereby supporting a better quality of life for those living in Ireland ”.
April 21st, 28th and May 5th, 2023, 9.30am – 4.30pm, Online
Wednesday, June 21st, 2023, 09:30 am – 1:00 pm, Online
‘How do you balance it?’: Businesses grapple with idea of four-day working week
Successful early trials are encouraging, but industry sceptics still argue it will be impossible to roll out across all sectors and companies
Among the more than 50 motions up for discussion at the annual Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants annual conference in Dublin today are a handful calling for the union’s new executive to commission research into the four-day working week and, separately, to support the existing campaign to promote the concept.
That campaign has been back in the news this past week as the organisation driving it here, Four Day Working Week Ireland, issued a call for businesses to enrol in its latest trial of the initiative. The idea is intended to allow people to receive 100 per cent of their pay for working 80 per cent of the time, in return for continuing to do 100 per cent of their previous workload.
To date, the results of what have generally been rather small-scale studies both here and abroad have been hugely positive, with upwards of 80 per cent of companies involved routinely saying they will stick with it long term and many of the others extending the trials.
Recruitment firm Ice Group’s Margaret Cox, who became a vocal advocate for the initiative after the company gave it a try, says there has been a 27 per cent increase in its staff’s productivity, greater levels of retention, fewer single-day absences and staff saying they are happier.
7th, 14th and 15th June 2023, 9.30am – 1.00pm
(9.30am-4.00pm on Day 2 and 3), Online
Thursday, June 15th, 2023, 9.30am – 1.00pm, Online
Fast-tracking of laws to allow appointment of 21 additional judges approved
Government will make request to President Higgins for early signature of Courts Bill
?The Government is to make a request to President Michael D Higgins to sign the Courts Bill 2023 into law early.
The Bill, which provides for the appointment of 21 additional judges, has been rushed through by the Coalition. The text of the Bill was approved on April 5th and it passed through the Dáil on April 26th and is awaiting Seanad approval.
At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, Minister for Justice Simon Harris got permission to have the Bill treated as an “early signature motion” for the President once it has passed through the Oireachtas.
The Bill is being expedited, according to a Government spokesman, because there is a need for extra judges in the High Court.
The appointments would allow the Planning Court, a divisional court of the High Court, to begin operating.
Tuesday, May 31st 2023' 10.00am – 1.00pm, Online
Thursday, May 25th, 2023, 9.30am – 1.00pm, Online
The?Q1 Progress Report of the 2023 Climate Action Plan?(CAP23) has been published, setting out delivery of significant actions across critical sectors. Six high impact sectors were identified in CAP23, reflecting the areas where emissions reduction is most significantly and urgently required under Ireland’s legally-binding carbon budgets. Sectoral Emissions Ceilings (SECs) have been established for Agriculture, Buildings, Electricity, Industry, and Transport. A final SEC for Land Use is expected by year end, pending the assessment of evolving scientific data.
In total, 36 actions were scheduled for delivery and reporting in Q1 2023. An implementation rate of 75% was achieved, with 27 measures completed on time this quarter.
In addition to headline sectoral actions, the report notes a number of cross-cutting actions completed in Q1 2023 that support the delivery of climate action via finance, planning, research, engagement, resilience, and public sector leadership.
Speaking on the Q1 Report, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said:
“The climate challenge is urgent, but we know we have the solutions. Taking action on climate does not have to be a burden; this is a moment of opportunity. Our 2023 Climate Action Plan will drive our emissions down and improve our lives with cleaner air, cleaner, cheaper energy, warmer homes, better transport links and less time commuting, new income, employment and investment opportunities for businesses, including for agri-businesses, more remote working, more jobs and better regional development.
“Our targets are challenging, and require system change, but the climate action we take will create a better, sustainable future. I have set the ambition for Ireland to become energy independent in a generation and I will convene a special summit on this topic this summer. We must be generation that turns the tide on climate change and biodiversity loss and leave the planet to the next generation in a better condition than we inherited it.”
Wednesday, July 5th 2023, 10.00am – 12.30pm, Online
Thursday, June 8th & Friday, June 9th, 2023
Day 1 – 9.30am – 4.00pm,?Day 2 – 9.30am – 12.30pm, Online
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