When you consider that, in practical terms, we have no armed forces worth talking about then the numbers, and more importantly the amount we spend, are quite large. I have no problem with that; the real issue is value for money.
The OECD’s Report Towards an Integrated Public Service, is extensive, running to nearly 375 pages. Among the key findings and recommendations set out in the Report are:
- General government employment in Ireland is relatively low among OECD countries. It is significantly less that the level of public employment in Norway, Sweden, France, Finland and Belgium.
- Ireland has the third smallest total public expenditure as a percentage of GDP, (third to Korea and Mexico), and this figure has decreased over the past ten years.
- If the Public Service is to become more responsive to meeting citizens expectations and achieving broader societal objectives, the OECD recommends thinking about the Public Service as a more integrated 'system'.
- The full potential of ICT and e-government is not being realised by public sector organisations for citizens.
- Performance measures and initiatives need to be better aligned with the overarching outcomes and high-level societal goals, in order for the general public to understand the benefits of the Public Service.
Maybe DublinTexas meant Public Servants?
In the Nordic countries they might have higher taxes and more public service but there people get something for their taxes. Working public transport, hospitals where a person is seen swiftly and a public service where they are friendly to tax payers.OECD report said:General government employment in Ireland is relatively low among OECD countries. It is significantly less that the level of public employment in Norway, Sweden, France, Finland and Belgium.
The flip side is, should we tell Microsoft to stop pumping the billions through it's Irish operation because of our low corporation taxes?
I wouldn't have thought Dermot Desmond would have gone through the main part of Dublin airport given that he has a private jet parked there. I thought there would be a separate area to check in for owners of private jets, but maybe not.
I wouldn't have thought Dermot Desmond would have gone through the main part of Dublin airport given that he has a private jet parked there. I thought there would be a separate area to check in for owners of private jets, but maybe not.
So we come in lower than the Nordic countries, France, Belgium and Slovakia.General government employment in Ireland is relatively low among OECD countries. It is significantly less that the level of public employment in Norway, Sweden, France, Finland and Belgium.
The GDP comparison figures would be fine, if our GDP wasn't inflated by a temporary construction boom and the often mentioned fact that our GDP is unusually higher than our GNP. The OECD themselves know this so I'm a little suprised for an Irish targetted report they used GDP figures so much.Ireland has the third smallest total public expenditure as a percentage of GDP, (third to Korea and Mexico), and this figure has decreased over the past ten years.
"Ireland is another country where GDP has to be read with care...while Ireland produces a lot of income per inhabitant, GNI shows that less of it stays in the country than GDP might suggest"
Pity the OECD didn't consult you. You obviously know a lot more than they do and could have pointed out loads of things that they didn't understand and take into account.
If however the level of public expenditure in Ireland is expressed as a percentage of GNI (40.5%), it becomes much closer to OECD average levels expressed as a percentage of GDP (42.7%).
What's Dermot Desmond in Dublin Airport got to do with public sevice numbers across Europe? Am I missing something?
I must try that angle the next time I'm stopped for speeding, i.e. "Well Garda, if you convert my speed to miles-per-hour and compare it to everyone else's kilometres-per-hour, you will see that I wasn't speeding at all - OK, Garda?".Anyway, in relation to the GDP/GNP thing - from the ever excellent Finfacts.
http://www.finfacts.com/irishfinancenews/article_101348.shtml
If however the level of public expenditure in Ireland is expressed as a percentage of GNI (40.5%), it becomes much closer to OECD average levels expressed as a percentage of GDP (42.7%).
I must try that angle the next time I'm stopped for speeding, i.e. "Well Garda, if you convert my speed to miles-per-hour and compare it to everyone else's kilometres-per-hour, you will see that I wasn't speeding at all - OK, Garda?".
A gap opened up between GDP and GNP. Ireland is unique in Europe in the degree that its gross domestic product exceeds its gross national product because of the profits that are removed by TNCs. In 1983, foreign profit repatriations made up just 3 per cent of GDP. By 1995, they were nearly 19 per cent of GDP. In 1999, they had risen to an astounding 40 per cent of GDP (48 per cent of incomes from royalties and licenses are included)! The proportion of TNC profits in GDP began to rise by an astonishing extent after 1997. In 1998, growth of foreign profits was equivalent to eighty per cent of economic growth! During the years 1997-99, the rise of TNC profits was equivalent to two-thirds of economic growth. As a result, the gap between GDP and GNP widened. In 1980, southern Irish GNP and GDP were practically equal. In 1990, gross domestic product was 11 per cent higher than gross national product. Today GDP exceeds GNP by about 20 per cent. In simple language, GDP overstates by a fifth how much material wealth was created for the Irish people by their own economic activities.
Wasn't there some controversy about this report after it emerged that several senior civil servants were on a panel that vetoed large sections of the report prior to publication? Sorry I can't find the link.
I'd hate to see the report before it was edited!
I never heard of any controversy and can't find anything about it on the net. Are you sure its the same report?
OK, thanks for clarifying. I just wanted to be absolutely certain that you weren't selectively choosing statistics to suit your arguement, and comparing them against other non-comparable statistics. No-one would try that - right?The same is not true of GDP and GNP. The statement in the Finfacts article holds true if we compare our GNP with the GNP of other countries. To put it in the terms of your analogy, the km/h clock is overstating your speed by 20% but the mph speed is accurate so you're asking the Guard to compare you're mph speed with the mph speed of the other drivers.
GDP in Ireland is overstated due to the presence of transfer pricing by large multinational corporations (i.e. large amounts of money nominally enters the country and then promptly leaves again for accounting purposes). It has no real effect on people living here, apart from the additional taxes collected and the skewed statistics. This phenomenon does not exist in other countries - their GDP roughly equals their GNP. The report - since it was focused on comparing Ireland to the rest of the world, should have used GNP measures for all countries.
Denis O'Hearn from Queen's University Belfast in 2002
http://library.fes.de/fulltext/id/01135c01.htm#E9E6
As long as transfer pricing and a GDP/GNP gap exists in Ireland, I will continue to argue that GNP is a more accurate measure even if it serves to invalidate a point I wish to make.
Would you do the same for GDP?
OK, thanks for clarifying. I just wanted to be absolutely certain that you weren't selectively choosing statistics to suit your arguement, and comparing them against other non-comparable statistics. No-one would try that - right?
OK, thanks for clarifying. I just wanted to be absolutely certain that you weren't selectively choosing statistics to suit your arguement, and comparing them against other non-comparable statistics. No-one would try that - right?
You're right I should think - I can't find anything on it either. I might be thinking of an earlier report. This one isn't exactly complementary about the state of the public service.
No one said it was. But you accused the report of being tampered with by Senior Civil Servants before being published and implied there was all sorts of other facts which hadn't come to light.
[broken link removed]THE contrasting realities of the lives of public servants and private sector workers has been highlighted again by the news that top civil servants “toned down” an OECD report, commissioned by the Government, into the performance of our public sector.
Amazingly, the senior civil servants vetted the report into how they do their business before it was published.
If this does not represent a self-serving abuse of power, position and authority, it is difficult to imagine what might.