Trinity Week Academic Symposium - Public policy partnerships

Abstract

The Irish Civil Service, probably like a lot of workplaces, has changed almost beyond recognition in the past 35 years. In the 1970s, almost all internal communication was in writing and it was commonplace for the views of each officer handling a case file to be recorded in writing and every file proceeded through the hierarchical structure until it reached the level appropriate to the decision which needed to be made. At each stage of the process, submissions were corrected and re-drafted before transmission to the next level. It was through this process of correction and refinement that junior officers learned the right and wrong ways of doing things. My contact in those days with my Assistant Secretary or Secretary-General was non-existent. That much of these processes have changed in the intervening years is a consequence of advances in technology and the new work practices that have resulted.