FG propose dismantling HSE

Fine Gael is set to announce policy changes it would implement in Government to improve public services and get the economy back on track.

The 'Reinventing Government' policy to be published later includes proposals such as dismantling the HSE, car pooling for Government Ministers and pay restraints for senior public servants.

It comes ahead of a Cabinet meeting today in which ministers are expected to further discuss the €6bn reduction in spending needed to bring the deficit in line with EU targets by 2014.

Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny said: "The public sector has a key role to play in rebuilding Ireland. We believe that the vast majority of public servants do an absolutely vital job and recognise that many public servants feel they are being unfairly targeted as a result of a crisis they did not create.

"The current crisis represents an opportunity to release the full potential of all who serve the public and a chance to say, 'Never again', to the behaviour of the past that has cast such a shadow on our future.

"'Reinventing Government' is the action plan designed to grab that opportunity."

Richard Bruton said: "'Reinventing Government' must be a foundation stone of economic renewal instead of the present model of Government which is serving only to make things worse.

"Thousands of public servants are presently trapped in a system that is failing them. Fine Gael has a plan to make a step change in the way our public services are run that will reward effort and ingenuity and penalise waste and inefficiency.

"Ministers and senior civil servants will evaluate projects and take responsibility for outcomes while managers will be freed up to innovate and motivate their colleagues to serve the needs of the public."

Among the actions set out by Fine Gael are the abolition of more than 145 state bodies and companies including the dismantling of the HSE and FAS and their replacement with better, more cost effective alternatives.

The party also proposes recruiting externally for "new high-level specialists in banking, taxation and macro economic forecasting", recruiting at least a third of senior level public servants for five years and reversing recent restrictions to the Freedom of Information Act.

They also promised to "establish an Independent Fiscal Council to advise Parliament on issues such as borrowing levels, debt reduction and taxation planning". The Fiscal Council will be accountable to the Oireachtas Finance Committee.