Based on my limited recent experience in my dealings with various sections of the public service, productivity is certainly down compared to pre-covid levels. My experience does not count for a lot but I’ve read the news reportage and heard the usual anecdotal stories which support my view.
Revenue staff are unavailable after 1:30pm.
The passport office is effectively uncontactable by phone or webchat (email contact is non-existent) and is engaging in inefficient practices leading to unnecessary delay.
The RTB has recently updated its website and processes but the customer experience is woeful (I’m waiting to hear back from them in relation to deactivating my account and linking it to my new one).
The LSRA complaints process is taking up to two years to deal with complaints, and sometimes longer.
Ditto with the FSPO.
Teachers have not been working at full tilt during the pandemic. Different schools worked at different paces (“home schooling” in my case was an email on a Friday night with lessons for the following week, whereas another school locally had sporadic online lessons for the children).
People with disabilities are suffering owing to the unavailability of therapeutic services.
Only today, I’ve read that Iarnrod Éireann have lost their catering contractor resulting in no catering on inter city lines.
The list goes on, and whilst I’m not blaming the workers, the reality is that the powers that be are currently presiding over systems that are inefficient, less productive than they could be and not always fit for purpose.
I think personally that the state blanket policy of allowing staff to work from home (and indeed insisting in some instances) has masked a drop in productivity across the entire civil and public service, and indeed the economy. However, nobody seems to be willing to do anything about it.
Hence my earlier comment concerning increased productivity.
