The (then) First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly announced that one of the major tasks facing the devolved Executive was public administration reform, which he saw as central to the way public services are structured , will be organized and delivered in the future. Since the origins of the Public Administration Review in Northern Ireland were rooted in the Program for Government, with the Executive pledging from the outset 'to lead the most accountable form of government in Northern Ireland' (OFMDFM, 2002: 7). First, the economy is likely to always be a background factor of some importance – the need to limit the rate of growth in public spending.
While Pollitt and Bouckaert's institutional approach is sympathetic, Bevir et al criticize the model on two grounds: 'it does not unpack the idea of path dependence by describing how and why the system got to where it is today' and does not examine 'the role of individual agency as a cause of change – there is little of the beliefs and actions of elite actors' (Bevir, Rhodes and Weller, 2003: 3). This requires historical narratives of elite constructions of reforms or the reconstruction of 'the beliefs of elites to unpack the ideas that inform the changing actions and practices of governance' (Bevir et al, 2003: 15). Reforms came in the form of the Macrory Report (1970) which divided services into regional services (requiring large administrative units) and district services (suitable for small areas).
As one MP noted “the quality of government services in Northern Ireland all too often lets down the people who use them and who are paying for them through their taxes” (Lidington, 2004: 9). However, we turn our attention to the details of the public administration review. A team of civil servants in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister is leading the review supported by a panel of independent experts.
Any proposal by opponents of the Accord to break up government departments under the Public Administration Review could have wider political ramifications for a power-sharing executive.
REGIONAL
In the field of education, the Ministry of Education would remain responsible for developing and implementing education policy and strategy, monitoring standards and allocating resources. The functions supporting education (recruitment, employment and payment of teachers, school library service, transport, admissions, raising standards) would be brought together into a new education service.
SUB REGIONAL
TWO-TIER MODEL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
A second new education body would be formed to bring together existing professional support services (curriculum development, examinations and assessment, in-service training, procurement of support services). The first is that non-departmental public bodies should be abolished and their functions transferred to central or local government, the voluntary and community sector or the private sector. The second option, favored by the reviewers, is that public bodies should continue to exist, but every effort should be made to improve their accountability.
As for executive agencies, the judges concluded that in the absence of strong opinions about their future, decisions should be left to a returning Executive and Assembly.
Evaluating the Review
Officials from the review team underestimated the affinity with or involvement in the local government of the political parties with whom they consulted (in the absence of the General Assembly). The consideration of the options for 7, 11 or 15 councils was motivated by the rather crude, if easily identified, political profile of the existing parliamentary boundaries, translated into a reorganized local government. After waiting some three years for the outcomes of the consultation processes, it seems insufficient to suggest that there should be another review of quangos.
5 The Chief Operating Officer (or most senior civil servant) of the Review Team, Greg McConnell, claims that local government spending under the new councils could be equivalent to £800m. This, the PAC concluded, 'shows a disturbing degree of complacency about fulfilling its statutory duty to some of the most vulnerable members of society' (PAC, 2004a: 1). Two of the biggest education quangos, the Belfast and South East Education and Library Boards, were the subject of a statutory inquiry set up by NIO Minister Barry Gardiner due to significant overspending in m and £21.4m respectively) .
A political party education spokesman said of the report: 'It is so frightening that the public will rightly ask why more money should be made available to quangos (a reference to education boards' calls for increased resources) which cannot manage the money they already have' (Wilson, 2005: 1). The Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland (C&AG) was unable to form an opinion on the department's financial statements for two consecutive years. As one member of the Public Accounts Committee put it: "whenever we look at anything in Northern Ireland, it always seems to be extremely weak" (Davidson, 2004: Q35).
In a debate in the Northern Ireland Grand Committee, an MP made this point more succinctly: 'it is not only the review of public administration that is relevant when we talk about the quality of services. Northern Ireland also appears to have eluded the modernizing agenda for public services in the rest of the UK (Modernising Government, 1999; Principles into Practice, 2002; Leading from the Front, 2003; Putting People at the Heart of Public Services, 2004 ). The review of public administration is a structural reform that is carried out in isolation from ongoing sector reforms.
The review was generally welcomed by all Northern Irish political parties (the UK Unionist Party notwithstanding), although perhaps for different reasons. While all accepted the need to streamline cumbersome administrative arrangements, create more accountable structures and address the democratic deficit, the DUP in particular saw this as an opportunity to reduce the number of government departments and thus the size of the power-sharing executive. On the transfer of cold stores, political parties are engaged in bilateral discussions with Lord Rooker (RPA Minister of State) about the results of the review.
Bureau-Shuffling?
However, one of the problems is that the public sector is much more important compared to the rest of the UK. One of the most important challenges for Northern Ireland is therefore to reform the public sector while at the same time growing the private sector. Despite problems with comparisons, research shows that Northern Ireland per capita public expenditure is 'well above' the UK average, but equally, based on regional GDP per capita, is one of its poorest regions (Heald amp; 86) .
The square footage of the group grant round and the need to improve public services has led direct rule ministers to introduce controversial proposals for water charges and a review of the domestic rating system. Regarding the former, the water service (executive agency) is expected to become a state-owned company in April 2006. The demand for public expenditure and improved services is made even greater by the high level of segregation in Northern Ireland.
The urgent priority must be to rationalize the machinery of government, the complexity of which suggests the use of quangos to legitimize direct rule. The political context in which any of the proposed reforms will take place remains highly unstable. A central assumption of the review is that 'the new model of public administration will work within the context of a return to deconcentration'.
The Democratic Unionist Party won 9 mandates, four additional deputies in the previous representation in Parliament, with 33.7% of the vote, an increase of 11.2%. The fact that 69 of the 108 MPs are also local councilors (with a dual mandate) means that any outcome of the review seen to adversely affect local government can be overturned, if its recommendations need the approval of the Assembly. With devolution, many areas of government in Northern Ireland came under the control of the Assembly.
After the adjournment of the last Assembly, you can tell us whether you think education, health and the economy, respectively, got better, worse, or stayed the same. The role played by senior civil servants is critical to the outcomes of the reform process. For example, it is an open secret that the Department of Education wrote the content of the education proposals contained in the final consultation document of the review of public administration.
Conclusions
Given the high visibility of local authorities, they have become an easy 'target' and one that the media latches onto as an example of radical reform in the language such as 'derogatory councils'.
Public Services
Direct Rule and Devolution
Education Provision
Better Worse Same
Health Provision
The Economy
1990) 'Management in Government: The Next Steps in Northern Ireland', Administration, Vol. 2005) 'Devolution - The Northern Ireland Way: An Exercise in Creative Ambiguity', Government and Policy (Environment and Planning Series C) Vol. 2005) Public Management and Modernization in Britain. Northern Ireland Civil Service (2001) Overview of the Northern Ireland Civil Service:. 1980) Northern Ireland: Between Civil Rights and Civil War: London: CSE Books. Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (2003), The Review of Public Administration in Northern Ireland.
Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (2004b), Fit for Purpose: The Reform Agenda in Northern Ireland's Civil Service. Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (2005a), Review of Public Administration in Northern Ireland: Further Consultation.
