Since taking office, less than 11 months ago, Brendan Howlin, the self-proclaimed 'Minister for Cuts' has had a rough year.

Given D ratings by several political commentators for his performance, as a Labour minister he has the dreaded task of having to introduce cuts of over €2.2bn in spending. Cuts which have impacted on the poor, those on welfare, the sick, the old and the young.

"I have never worked harder in my life," says the Public Expenditure and Reform Minister as he invites me into his spacious office in the now divided Department of Finance.

Such cuts are anathema to Labour party principles, and a difficult Budget has led to significant coolings in relations between the coalition parties, epitomised by the latest row this week over the closure of the Vatican embassy.

As a Government they have also not helped themselves, in some of the choices they made on where the axe should fall.

"We have made mistakes in one or two areas," he concedes.

Coupled with a host of mega-buck pay-offs to departing top officials who were in office when Ireland's boom turned to bust, and his continued allegiance to the controversial Croke Park deal, Howlin's ambitious reform agenda has suffered a number of credibility blows.

The Wexford native, former teacher, former minister for health, former minister for the environment, former deputy Labour leader but now arguably the party's most important minister, is the man at the heart of government.

Last Thursday morning, with much on his mind, as the spring chill bit hard outside his department, we sat down to talk.

Mass exodus of staff

Top of the agenda is the looming crisis brewing as a result of the mass exodus of almost 8,000 people from across all the public sector who are retiring early in order to protect their generous pensions.

Howlin, the man in charge of managing this exodus, says he himself has grave concerns as to what will happen.

He highlights that the most chaos is likely to occur in the health sector, given how many people are involved and the diversity of the system.

"Bluntly I am most concerned about the health sector," he says starkly. "I think there are robust plans in most other sectors that are clear to me. But the diversity of the health sector is such that I think it provides the biggest challenges."

He warns that there will be inevitable mistakes made due to human error from the end of February but the success of the exodus will depend on the local managers.

"There are some within the health service who say, you cannot do the same amount of work with less staff. That mindset has to change and we will test that in the coming weeks."

He says that media commentary that lives will be risked by these staff departures is "shocking" but that the responsibility to ensure lives are not jeopardised is not his, but highly paid managers on the frontline.

"We cannot micro-manage the entire public sector and every public sector workplace. The one thing I don't want is for me or the Minister for Health to be sitting in his department getting calls from individual hospitals. Hospital managers are well paid and they have to manage and they can now see what is coming."

I ask him how he and his staff are preparing to limit the impact of the retirements.

"We have the whole architecture of Croke Park, which allows flexibility. This will really be a challenge for local managers to step up to the plate."

He signals that there may be some targeted recruitment to alleviate some of the gaps in staff numbers.

"I have said there will be limited recruitment this year, but I want that recruitment to be targeted."

Increments

When I interviewed Howlin last June, he was steadfastly opposed to any move to cut incremental pay increases for public sector workers, saying they are an established practice in public service.

However, when I re-ask him the question, his position has changed considerably. Increments, according to him are now under consideration for removal as part of the Croke Park review.

"Everything will be looked at. Everything is on my agenda. Let's look at increments, nothing goes off my agenda. The quantum to be paid in 2012 is €90m. By and large it goes to people at entry level. Two-thirds of people are already out of increments because they are at the top of the scale. I am open to a debate on these matters. We have to make rational choices when it comes to cuts, and ensure they are done in a fair way."

Paul Appleby

One of the most controversial departures from the public service was the last-minute unexpected bomb that the chief investigator into Anglo Irish Bank, the director of corporate enforcement, Paul Appleby, wanted to retire, protecting his maximum pension benefit, worth €75,356 a year. He will also receive a lump sum worth €226,028.

When I mention it, Howlin can barely conceal his unhappiness with the "problem".

Appleby told Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton that he wanted to go last Friday week, but Bruton only told his cabinet colleagues on Tuesday.

"Richard Bruton came to Cabinet yesterday and told the Cabinet that he had been informed that Mr Appleby was going. And that caused concern to the extent we have been focused on the really important work, the office of ODCE (Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement).

"We want that work to come to a conclusion and we want it done seamlessly. We had a discussion immediately at Cabinet and I spoke to Richard to see that there would be no diminution or impact on that work."

Howlin explains how it fell to him to resolve the problem quickly.

"I spoke to my secretary-general immediately. We looked at the legislation because he (Appleby) is a statutory office holder. We worked out a system to allow him to do what he wanted to do and that it is his personal choice to retire but then stay on.

"The bottom line is people are entitled to retire. I expressed I was surprised to hear this. I don't know his reasons and it's not my business. The will of Government is that he stay on, he responded to that. . . He was content and happy to stay on to ensure the entire process of selecting his successor be completed," he says.

I ask him if he was disappointed. "Disappointment didn't come into it."

Unions

Labour's close ties to trade unions have regularly come in for criticism and historically have stymied real public sector reform. I ask him about the relationship in 2012 and its impact on government policy.

"We understand unions and workers. It is a part of our DNA, an affinity to workers. It is a strength, not a weakness. We understand workers. But we are not in thrall to anybody."

Budget scaremongering

In the context of the criticism of ministers James Reilly and Joan Burton for 'kite-flying' in the run up to the Budget, Howlin has some stinging words of criticism for his colleagues in government.

"Kites were flown and I read proposals that were never on anyone's agenda, which was disconcerting. They certainly were never on my agenda," he said.

Such sabre-rattling was deeply unwelcome and had a profoundly negative impact on the perception of the Government.

"It wasn't useful and it had an impact on people's perception on what was going on. There were issues in the public domain toward the end of the budgetary process that were never on the agenda."

New budget process

To prevent it happening again this year, echoing comments by Joan Burton in an interview three weeks ago, Howlin has informed his cabinet colleagues and has written to all the chairmen of the Dail committees, to say that no longer will Budgets be decided behind closed doors.

"The new process will hopefully put an end to that. This year, we will do a different budgetary process," he says.

"We have set out a three-year envelope figure of expenditure, so people will know what the 2012 figures (will be) and the 2013 figures and the rough figures for 2014," he added.

I ask him to expand on this. "I have written to each of the chairmen of the Oireachtas committees in the Dail and said there is no reason why we can't start the budgetary process for next year now. Let's look at the options, see if new options come, let them be tested. Ultimately Government will make the decisions. I have written to committee chairs, and I have informed my cabinet colleagues so they can be ready for it. Ministers should go to committees and say 'here are my options. Let's tease out the consequences in public'."

Political reforms

In conjunction with overseeing the exodus, and the formation of next year's Budget, Howlin is also setting his mind to introducing some long overdue political reforms.

On Tuesday, he is bringing two important memos to Cabinet. One is the whistleblowers' bill to protect those who speak out against wrong-doing, corruption and fraud in their work places. Interestingly, the bill will apply to both public and private sector workers.

"The whistleblowers' bill is going to Cabinet on Tuesday. All the external criticism of Ireland in the past in terms of transparency mentioned the need for robust whistleblower legislation. People in the workplace are restricted or afraid to blow the whistle on corruption, fraud, malpractice. We need to give a clear legal basis to protect those who speak out."

This is highly welcome given the recent controversy involving Louise Bayliss, who

made public the closing of the psychiatric ward for six weeks over Christmas at Grangegorman.

The second is a very important memo which is aimed at tackling duplication across government departments. This shared services initiative will see departments and agencies streamline their back office operations.

"It is not sexy but it will save the taxpayer millions," he says.

He also wants to end the "culture of entitlement" public sector workers have for sick days, which he said are no longer justifiable.

He concludes that he has already begun work on reforming the Freedom of Information legislation, which could see the gardai included for the first time.

An impressive man, Howlin's assured manner and his good working relation- ship with Finance Minister Michael Noonan vindicated Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore's decision to put him in the Finance gig.

However, the credibility of his reform agenda is about to be severely tested. If the exodus of 8,000 workers passes without major incident, then Howlin can justifiably claim a victory. However, such a victory looks highly unlikely and while 2011 was rough, 2012 could end up being far rougher.

- Daniel McConnell

Originally published in