Civil servants call for role of special advisers to be clarified

Michael O’Farrell, Political Reporter

The AHCPS, which represents senior civil servants and public service managers across all Government departments, will also call for the Government to implement effective rules of corporate governance for departments following the Travers report on illegal nursing home charges.

An emergency motion, to be presented to today's conference by the AHCPS executive, expresses "serious reservations" over several of the findings of the Travers report, which effectively cleared then Health Minister Mícheál Martin while laying much of the blame on civil servants in the Department of Health.

The Travers report also expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of clarity surrounding the working relationship between special advisors and ministers.

Today's motion, once passed, would empower the AHCPS to put pressure on the Government to clarify on a statutory basis the role of special advisers to ministers "in a manner which will provide that the responsibilities, reporting relationships and accountabilities of senior civil servants to ministers will not be undermined and that special advisers will not be involved in line responsibilities in departments."

The motion also addresses the core of the nursing home charges controversy whether or not Mr Martin was briefed on the issue by calling for "agreed protocols covering the interaction between Ministers and civil servants particularly in relation to briefing of Ministers, recording of Ministerial decisions and verbal instructions."

AHCPS secretary general Seán Ó Riordáin said the scandal could have been avoided had proper systems been in place.

You need to have ministers and the top group in departments meet maybe once a month with a clear agenda to look at the important issues that need to be dealt with and a requirement to actually put that down on paper," he said.

Today's conference will also hear renewed criticism of the Government's decentralisation plan.

The AHCPS is opposed to decentralisation on the grounds it will cause chaos in the civil service and affect services to the public.