Seán Aylward
Shared services to achieve efficient operations

Seán Aylward is Secretary General in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The Secretary General is charged with the Department’s day-to-day management and with its strategic planning and direction. Prior to taking up this role, he held a number of other senior positions in the Department. He was also Director General of the Irish Prison Service from 1999 – 2004.

Frank Barry
Options for transforming public sector organisations

Frank Barry is Professor of International Business and Development at Trinity College Dublin. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Queen's University, Ontario, and has previously held positions at the Universities of California, Stockholm and New South Wales, and with the Harvard Institute for International Development. He is a specialist in the fields of foreign direct investment, international trade and economic development, and lectures on public sector economics with the African Economic Research Consortium.

Ciarán Connolly
Reviewing public service numbers and expenditure

Ciarán Connolly is Secretary General, Public Service Management and Development, in the Department of Finance. He previously served as Assistant Secretary in Personnel and Remuneration Division of the Department with responsibility for public service pay and industrial relations. Prior to that he worked in various Divisions of the Department and previously in the Department of the Public Service and the Revenue Commissioners.

Ger Daly
Delivering real reform in the longer term

Ger Daly is head of Accenture’s Public Service practice in Ireland, responsible for all of the work with public service clients from strategy through delivery to managed services. In addition, he manages Accenture’s Border Management, Justice and Public Safety business across Europe, Africa and Latin America. He has worked predominantly with public service clients for more than 20 years, with many of the projects at the forefront of public sector transformation and reform.

Norman Gillanders
Modernising government: A personal reflection

Norman Gillanders is head of Planning Division in the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. He has been an Assistant Secretary for 11 years, and in this time has led a number of significant change projects. There are in excess of 100 Revenue offices countrywide with a staff complement of over 7000.

Colm Hoban
The role of technology in delivering public services

Colm Hoban has over 25 years experience in the communications industry. He was recently appointed as Director Government Markets at eircom where he has responsibility for all Government Departments and Public Service Organisations. In his previous role he led eircom’s solutions function to provide design, implementation and service management capability for Enterprise and Government customers. He was formerly Director of the Enterprise Market with responsibility for eircom’s top 300 customers and has held senior roles in management accounting, financial systems development and business development.

Brian Lenihan (invited)
The importance of transforming public services in a time of fiscal challenges

Brian Lenihan was appointed as Minister for Finance on 7 May, 2008. He served formerly as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and prior to that he had been Minister of State with responsibility for Children at the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, and the Department of Education and Science. He was first elected to the Dáil in April 1996 in the by-election caused by the death of his father, Brian, who had been a deputy in Dublin West since 1977.

Laverne McGuinness
Creating a modern health service for Ireland

Laverne McGuinness is currently the HSE’s National Director of Primary, Community and Continuing Care (PCCC).  Her responsibility extends to the management of a budget of €8bn p.a. and 55,000 members of staff.  For the past fourteen years Laverne has worked throughout the public health service in Ireland.  Her previous roles have included Director of Finance and Assistant Chief Executive Officer in the Northern Area Health Board. She also worked in the interim HSE and became National Director of National Shared Services in the HSE.  Laverne has recently been appointed as the National Director Integrated Services - Performance and Financial Management and will be responsible for service performance and financial management across the hospitals and community system.

Pat McLoughlin
The An Bord Snip report: Key recommendations

Pat McLoughlin is a member of the advisory panel to the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes.  He  joined IPSO as Chief Executive in August 2007.  Previously he had extensive experience in senior management positions in the public health service, the more recent being Deputy CEO of the Health Service Executive.  He is the Irish banking representative at the decision making plenary of the European Payments Council and is a member of the European Commission's Payment Systems Market Expert Group.

Niamh O'Donoghue
Lean Six Sigma approach to efficient public services

Niamh O’Donoghue is the Director General of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. Prior to joining DSFA in December 2007, she worked in Revenue and, before that, the Public Appointments Service. In both organisations, Niamh was deeply involved in the introduction and implementation of major organisation change – an area of continuing interest for her. She earned her primary degree from the IPA, and followed this with an MA from the University of Keele and an MSc (Mgmt) from TCD.

Bruce Robinson
Changing for the better: The Northern Ireland public sector reform programme

Bruce Robinson is Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) and leads 25,000 civil servants. Prior to taking up the post in July 2008, he was Permanent Secretary in the Department of Finance & Personnel. He had specific responsibility for the NICS modernisation agenda and ensuring that, alongside public sector reform, the changes being made within the NICS help deliver excellent public services to the citizen. Communication has been central to Bruce Robinson’s reform strategy, which is rolling out under the ‘Changing for the Better’ banner. He is also head of the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister and Secretary to the Northern Ireland Executive. In these roles he is the most senior adviser to the First and Deputy First Ministers.

John Tierney
The role of stronger local government in delivering public services

John Tierney is City Manager of Dublin City Council.  He was appointed to this position in September 2006.  He has extensive experience in the Local Authority Sector, having worked with eight different local authorities, including previous positions as Galway City Manager and Fingal County Manager.  John is Chairman of the Steering Group, which monitors the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area. He is also a Director of the Affordable Homes Partnership Board, Dublin Tourism and the Digital Hub Development Agency. He is a member of the Council of Dublin Chamber of Commerce and the Governance Board of the Long Room Hub in Trinity College Dublin and he is also Deputy Chairman of the Institute of Public Administration.