Work of the Management Support Unit

Management Board

The head (Principal Officer) of the Management Support Unit is an ex-oficio member of the Department’s Management Board. The role of the Management Board is to ensure that the Department is managed as a corporate entity and that decisions on key policy, strategic and management issues are taken collectively before submission, as appropriate, for consideration at a political level or otherwise implemented. The Principal oversees the Secretariat to the Department’s Management Board and Management Board agendas.

Management Support

In providing support to management, Management Support Unit is responsible for the preparation and development of monthly Management Information Reports to the Management Board. The Unit also co-ordinates reports on the implementation of the Programme for Government and the Department’s Legislative Programme, amongst others. In addition, replies to Parliamentary Questions (PQs), together with ministerial briefs, are prepared by the Unit where the subject matter involves cross-divisional issues outside the lead responsibility of any particular area of the Department. Responses to Government Memoranda involving cross-functional issues are also drafted in consultation with other Divisions.

Strategy Statement

Under the Public Service Management Act, 1997, each Government Department is required to prepare a Strategy Statement every three years or within six months of the appointment of a new Minister. Management Support Unit leads in the preparation of this Department’s Strategy Statement, which outlines our key objectives, strategies and outputs/outcomes (including the use of resources) over a 3-year period. The Strategy Statement 2008-2010 was published in April 2008. We are currently preparing the next Statement for the 2011-2013 period.

• Consultation on Development of the Department’s Strategy for 2011-2013
• Statement of Strategy 2008 – 2010 (RTF 945KB)

Annual Report

An annual progress report on the implementation of the Strategy Statement is produced and Management Support Unit co-ordinates the preparation and publication of the Department’s Annual Report.

• Annual Report 2008 (PDF, 810KB) / Tuarascáil Bhliantúil 2008 (PDF, 866KB)

Transforming Public Services

Successive Social Partnership Agreements have promoted a programme of modernisation across all Government Departments. The OECD Review of the Irish Public Service, the subsequent Report of the Task Force on the Public Service, and the Organisational Review Programme Report on the Department have each provided further impetus to this programme in recent years. The “Croke Park Agreement” between the Government and the Public Services Committee of the ICTU was ratified before Summer 2010, and sets out the next phase of our Modernisation Programme. Management Support Unit is leading this Department’s implementation of this agreement within the Department and our State Agencies.

As part of the Agreement, the Department is required to submit regular reports to the Implementation Body that was established to conduct independent verification of the measures taken by all bodies covered by the Agreement. To date, the Department has submitted its initial Implementation Action Plan for the Department and its Agencies, and two progress reports (one in January 2011 and the latest in May 2011). Copies of the latest Progress Report and Sustainable Savings Report for the Department are available here:

• Submission to Department of Finance, May 2011 (PDF, 48KB)
• Progress Report, April 2011 (PDF, 217KB)
• Sustainable Savings Report (PDF, 87KB)
• Progress Report, September 2011 (PDF 191KB)

Implementation of the Agreement by this Department is taking place within the wider context of the very significant reductions in the Department’s financial allocation already effected in recent years, including in Budget 2011, and the impact of the Employment Control Framework on staffing numbers. Moreover, the Department has been set particularly challenging targets within the National Recovery Plan (NRP), with target expenditure reductions totalling some €48m between 2011 and 2014. In this regard, theDepartment is currently conducting a Comprehensive Expenditure Review as well as undertaking a Strategy Review and Development programme.

We are also addressing the revised Employment Control Framework, under which staffing numbers for the Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation group (i.e., the Department and its Offices and Agencies) are set to reduce by 398, falling from 3,009 in 2010 to 2,611 in 2014. Within this, the staffing ceiling set out for the Department itself (including its Offices) is set to reduce by 108 people over the same period. These figures do not reflect the net reduction of 152 staff that this Department and its Offices have already achieved in the last two years.

Business Planning

Management Support Unit is the focal point for the development of a framework for preparation and review of Business Plans, which are prepared at Divisional level. The Business Plans are the means by which the high level goals in the Department’s Strategy Statement are translated into annual work programmes. The Business Planning process enhances management of tasks and ensures ownership of goals at Divisional and Section – or individual business unit – level. Management Support Unit issues annual guidelines to staff to launch the planning cycle, coordinates the presentation of the Plans to the Department’s Management Board for approval and leads the process of mid-term and end-of-year reviews of the Plans.

Assignment of Authority & Responsibility

The Secretary General of every Government Department is that Department’s “Accounting Officer”. Under the Public Service Management Act, 1997, the Secretary General can assign authority, responsibility and accountability down to his or her Assistant Secretaries and to Principal Officer level. Management Support Unit co-ordinates the review of these Assignment Orders on an annual basis following the completion of the Business Plans.

Consultancy, Research and VFM Budgets for the Department

Management Support Unit is responsible for administering the Department’s Consultancy and Value for Money (VFM), and Research Services budgets or “Subheads”.

Consultancy is defined as projects principally relating to the provision of advice whereas Research relates to the compilation of information or data. Under these two headings we fund various consultancy and research projects undertaken for the Department directly relating to our Departments’s areas of responsibility. Detailed guidelines regarding the strong business case needed to secure funding under these subheads are produced by Management Support Unit and final decisions on granting funding from these subheads for individual projects are taken by the Department’s Management Board.

The VFM element of the consultancy budget is used to fund value for money and policy reviews of expenditure in selected areas of the Department to provide a basis by which more informed decisions can be made on priorities within and between programmes. In accordance with Department of Finance guidelines, VFM reviews are overseen by a Steering Committee to agree the terms of reference for the review, identify the precise methodology to be employed and oversee the evaluation process. Completed reviews are laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas, submitted to the appropriate Oireachtas Select Committee, and published on the Department’s website.

The latest round of VfM Reviews approved by the Government covers the 3-year period 2009-11. During this time, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation has been charged with undertaking 2 VfM reviews as part of the Government’s VfM and Policy Review Programme. Management Support Unit coordinates the Department’s participation in this across-Government activity.

Risk Management

Management Support Unit is responsible for supporting, promoting and developing policies and procedures to oversee the implementation of the Department’s Risk Management Policy. We oversee the risk management database and provide an analysis of the risk findings from each Division to the Risk Management Committee and the Management Board.

Representing the Department on Committees