Getting with the programme...

...or, some snippets from the government-in-waiting's programme - Government for National Recovery 2011 - 2016

• Where appropriate, agency boards will be scrapped and agency managers will report directly to Ministers and their Departments on performance against targets.
• We will go beyond the recommendations of An Bord Snip to rationalise core processes that are duplicated across the public service, by establishing shared backoffice operations for information technology, human resource management payments and entitlement applications, business inspections and procurement.
• We will make substantial cuts to the number of State bodies and companies.
• We will instigate a Government-wide review to identify and eliminate non-priority programmes and outsource, where appropriate, non-critical functions.
Cut the 13.5% rate of VAT to 12% up to end 2013 [The exhibition trade will welcome this]

Arts, Culture and Sport
• We will make strategic policy formulation the primary function of the Department, with line agencies and bodies responsible for policy implementation.
• We will seek to capture some public good from NAMA by identifying buildings that have no commercial potential, and which might be suitable as local facilities for art and culture.
Responsibility for policy-making will revert to the Department, while agencies will be accountable for implementing policy, assessing outcomes and value for money.
All State funding will be subject to the beneficiaries signing up to a dispute resolution service, a code of governance and a new mandatory code of conduct regarding child protection in sport.

Communications
• We will review and update Intellectual Property legislation currently in place to benefit innovation, develop a National Intellectual Property protocol to give clarity about terms on which business can access IP created in Higher Education Institutions, and clarify legislation relating to online copyright infringement and enforcement of rights relating to digital communications.
• We will examine the role, and collection of, the TV license fee in light of existing and projected convergence of broadcasting technologies, transform the TV licence into a household-based Public Broadcasting Charge applied to all households and applicable businesses, regardless of the device they use to access content and review new ways of TV licence collection, including the possibility of paying in instalments through another utility bill (electricity or telecom), collection
by local authorities, Revenue or new contract with An Post.
• We will review the funding of public and independent broadcasters to ensure a healthy broadcasting environment in Ireland.