Annual Report 2002

Link to full Annual Report (682kb)

Introduction

2002 was a year of considerable challenge and change for the Department. Our annual report details the Department's actions in serving government and meeting the diverse needs and expectations of our stakeholders and customers.

Economic growth has had the effect of increasing demand for services in many areas of the Department. This has been particularly notable in employment rights and information, and in work permits. Here, we established a new call centre to help us respond more promptly and efficiently to our clients' needs. We also made many of our publications available in multilingual form to reflect the growing ethnic diversity of our workforce.

Employment remained buoyant in many areas, but the difficult global trading conditions did see an increase in closures and redundancies in some sectors. Our staff worked hard to ensure that redundancy and insolvency payments were made as quickly as possible to the workers affected. We also provided an electronic calculation tool on our website to help clients quickly and easily determine their entitlements.

The demand for information on all aspects of the Department continues to grow. We maintained high standards of efficiency in our response to requests under the Freedom of Information Act. However, we also placed considerable emphasis on the provision of information to customers outside of the confines of the Act. Our website www.djei.ie continued to serve as a vital and increasingly popular channel for communication. We also made particular efforts to publish our annual report as early as possible.

Staff of the Department continued to serve our Ministers and the wider political system. Specific needs arose in the context of last Summer's general election. In that regard, the Department provided briefing to our incoming Ministers and members of the Oireachtas.

Towards the end of the year, we also had the opportunity to present to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise and Small Business.

2002 was also marked out by intensive forward looking activity. In line with the change of government, we embarked on a thorough review of our strategy. In our review, we aimed to balance strategic intent with the flexibility needed to deal with the inherent unpredictability of the external environment.

We also contributed to the formation of the new social partnership agreement, both through the deliberations of the National Economic and Social Council and in the detailed negotiations with the social partners themselves. The provisions of the new agreement will have a significant impact on the work of the Department going forward.

2002 was a year of tightening public finances. The Department placed particular emphasis on matching resources to the priorities established by Government and to delivering value for money. Extensive work was undertaken on the development of a new financial management system and on the resourcing of the Department and its agencies through the EU Structural Funds and the National Training Fund.

As a knowledge based organisation, we continued to enhance our training and development capacity to ensure that we have the skills and competencies needed to deliver our services with energy, efficiency and enthusiasm. The Department's selection as one of the fifty best organisations to work for in Ireland is, we hope, reflective of our shared sense of privilege to work on behalf of government and society.

Paul Haran

Secretary General