Events
Presentation from John Moran, Secretary-General, Department of Finance
Date: 16/01/2013
In the first briefing session of 2103, Mr. Moran shared with ACESA members his insights into the prospects for the Irish economy as the year began.
Mr. Moran opened the discussion by drawing peoples’ attention to a key theme of the Irish Presidency, which is to foster economic growth and jobs.
In his presentation, he suggested that economic indicators show some evidence of emerging stability in the Irish situation. However, with unemployment running at 320,000 and very slow job creation rates, big changes in our approach to solving the problem are needed.
A suggested way forward was via the concept of Public Entrepreneurs, which entails bringing a commercial mindset to the provision of public services.
Although Government needs to be the engine of growth, we also need more cross-cutting working and more collaboration between the public and private sectors.
Mr. Moran suggested that we need to decide what type of country we want. For example, do we want to export our young people to work abroad? Alternatively, do we want to build an economy, based on innovation, which can sell its services to other countries and expand its own labour market?
We also need to be informed by a better sense of global perspective. We need to bring more economic reality to how we define our regions. For example, in the education sector, having a third level institution in each major town/city, all competing with each other, hardly makes sense – particularly when compared to the practice in other more densely populated jurisdictions.
Key Discussion Points
It was suggested that the current moratorium on recruitment needs to be operated more flexibly.
More support from the Centre for initiatives proposed by agencies – particularly those with expertise in economic areas – would be appreciated
The current approach is overly risk averse, and there is not enough ‘joined up thinking’ in evidence.
The Department could usefully commit to commit to working with ACESA and other stakeholders in addressing the obstacles to making the concept of the Public Entrepreneur a reality.
Evaluation
37 members were present at this briefing session, which was evaluated in the main as excellent or vey good.
You can find John Moran’s presentation by clicking here.