Events

Date: 01/01/2009

A very successful seminar on the topic of Shared Services was held in the Westbury Hotel on 10th November with over 30 ACESA members in attendance. The topic was presented from a public sector perspective by Niamh O’Donoghue and from a private sector perspective by Paul Pierotti.

Speaker Background:

Niamh O’Donoghue joined the Department of Social and Family Affairs as Director General in December 2007. She commenced her career in the Civil Service in 1979 and worked in the Department of Health and the Office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners prior to joining the Office of the Revenue Commissioners as an Assistant Secretary in 2001. There she worked closely with Frank Daly on the change programme he told us about at our October conference.
She served as a Board member of the Public Appointments Service from 2004 to 2007 and chairs the Civil Service Change Management Network.

She is currently heading up a task force under the auspices of the Transforming Public Services initiative to look at Information Sharing (‘Data mining’), as a particular aspect of shared services, and the simplification of means assessment across the public service. This involves examining how information might be shared between agencies, or how work done by one agency might ‘support’ the requirements of another.

Paul Pierotti is a Managing Consultant based in PA Consulting Group’s Dublin office. He specialises in working with clients to deliver improved business operating models through the use of outsourcing and shared services.

When based in the UK Paul worked on over a dozen outsourcing projects across the public and private sector. In his five years in Ireland, he has also led many successful public sector projects that have involved improving operational performance and outsourcing. He was the Director of Enterprise Ireland’s recent Business Process Outsourcing Innovation Programme where he worked directly with ten outsourcers, equipping him with a robust understanding of the relative merits of each.
Niamh O’Donohue also suggested the following additional resources:

For Research:
UK Research Council’s Shared Services Centre: http://www.ssc.rcuk.ac.uk/Pages/default.aspx
For training, conferences and updates:
The Shared Services and Outsourcing Network: http://www.ssonetwork.com/

ACESA Annual Conference 2009

(Where presentations are available, please click on the speaker name to download)
The ACESA Annual Conference took place in the Hodson Bay Hotel, Athlone, on Thursday 01 and Friday 02 October. 36 CEOs attended.

The proceedings opened on Thursday 1st with a welcome address from Maurice Buckley, Acesa Chairperson. This was followed by an overview of Public Sector Change Management from Richard Boyle, Head of the Research Division at the IPA.

Following this Moling Ryan shared the results of a recent consultation on a Research Agenda for the Associatioin, and looked for a mandate to proceed along the lines suggested.

We were joined in the evening by Michael Finneran TD, Minister of State at the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and TD for Roscommon-South Leitrim, who focussed his address on his and the government’s views on the conference theme of ‘leadership in the 2010s’.

Next morning Donal McNally (Second Secretary in the Sectoral Policy Division in the Department of Finance and a member of An Bord Snip) covered the structural aspects of the proposals around agencies and departments. Then Fergus Finlay (Chief Executive of Barnardo’s in Ireland) addressed the need to protect the most vulnerable in society and, drawing on his government experience, suggest how we should now be tackling the urgent changes needed. For the second half of the morning Frank Daly (Chairman of the Commission on Taxation and a former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners) gave an oversight of his his role in effecting the transformation of the Revenue Commissioners during his time there. Following him was Philip Kelly (Assistant Secretary in charge of the Transforming Public Services Initiative in the Taoiseach’s Offfice) who spoke on the structural improvements he foresees arising out of this initative.. This was followed by an overview of Public Sector Change Management.

June Breakfast Briefing

Our June ACESA Breakfast Meeting was on the topic of ‘Freedom of Information and its implications in 2009’. The topic was presented by Ms Emily O’Reilly, Ombudsman and Information Commissioner. The meeting took place in Dublin’s Westbury Hotel on Tuesday 23rd June.

Speaker Background:

Ms Emily O’Reilly was appointed Ireland’s third Ombudsman 01 June 2003 by the President of Ireland, Mrs Mary McAleese, on the nomination of each of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Dail and Seanad). Prior to her appointment, Ms O’Reilly was a journalist and author and had been a political correspondent for various media since 1989.

The new Ombudsman was also appointed Ireland’s second Information Commissioner under the Freedom of Information Act, 1997 on 01 June 2003. In this role Ms O’Reilly provides an independent review of decisions relating to the right of access of members of the public to records held by public bodies.

She is also a member of the Standards in Public Office Commission, the Dáil Constituency Commission and the Commission for Public Service Appointments. Ms O’Reilly was educated at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin. She was also the recipient of a Nieman Fellowship in Journalism at Harvard University, Cambridge, U.S.A.

May Breakfast Briefing

Finbarr Flood came along and talked with us on the topic of ’Leadership and Motivation in Challenging Times.’ The meeting was held in in Dublin’s Westbury Hotel on Thursday 7th May.

Speaker Background:

Finbarr Flood joined Guinness as a boy messenger at the age of 14 and was appointed Managing Director in 1989. He was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Labour Court on leaving Guinness and subsequently became Chairman in 1998, a post he held until his retirement in December 2003.
He is a former Vice-President of the Employers’ Federation, an Adjunct Professor of the National College of Ireland and a Companion of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in Ireland). He has acted as Chairman of the Government’s Decentralisation Implementation Group, the Fatima
He has also chaired the pay discussions negotiated on behalf of the Coroners of Ireland and is Chairman of the current review of the DTSS.

In 2006, he published his memoir “IN FULL FLOOD” covering his 50 years in business and sport.He is a former Vice-President of the Employers’ Federation, an Adjunct Professor of the National College of Ireland and a Companion of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in Ireland). He has acted as Chairman of the Government’s Decentralisation Implementation Group, the Fatima Regeneration Board, the St. Michael’s Regeneration Board and the Members’ Advisory Council of the VHI.

He has also chaired the pay discussions negotiated on behalf of the Coroners of Ireland and is Chairman of the current review of the DTSS between the IDA and the relevant Government Departments.

In 2006, he published his memoir “IN FULL FLOOD” covering his 50 years in business and sport.