Modernising Irish Government

Introduces the Strategic Management Initiative, its origins and its impact;
discussed in terms of efficiency, responsibility and democracyExamines the scale, scope and structure of the delivery of services to the
public and their relationship to the civil service, government departments,
commercial semi-state companies and other public bodies
Identifies a number of significant failures in service delivery, examines these
in detail, and offers an analysis of the reasons for them
Reviews the institutional framework for regulating monopolies in such sectors
as telecommunications, aviation and retail competition
Presents a critique of the new kinds of relationships between government & the
people by reviewing Social Partnership, the Citizen Charters of government
departments and other similar instruments
Examines current, key Human Resource issues within the Civil Service, including
the contentious issue of decentralisation
Written in an accessible style by experienced academics from three disciplines, political science, management and human resource management