Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

enefits in terms of pooling resources and specialised skills across a
number of local authorities.
8.6.2 The Group considers the Regional Design Offices a good model of shared
technical support services which could be replicated in other local authority
service areas. The Group suggests that specialised skills such as
procurement, land acquisition, project management through planning and
construction and asset management would also be beneficial as support
services to other local authority services involving strategic infrastructural
investments, such as water and waste management and public lighting. It
should be noted that waste management infrastructure is predominantly
being developed by the private sector and thus the role for RDOs in this
area may not be as significant in future as in other areas. The NRA has
also indicated to the Group its willingness to provide support and advice to
local authorities based on its expertise in public-private partnerships.
8.6.3 In that context, the Group suggests that the RDO model be expanded to
incorporate technical support services to water and waste infrastructure and
not be confined to road-related work only. This should reduce the need for
local authority use of private consultants (see section 11.4). One implication
of this would be that the governance and management arrangements for the
RDOs would have to be reviewed in light of their taking on new
responsibilities.
8.6.4 The gross benefit of this enhanced role for the RDOs could be up to 5% of
the capital investment involved, but there would be some offsetting staffing
and administrative costs as that role increased.
8.6.5 The Group is also recommending that the number of RDO locations be
streamlined so that each RDO serves several county areas – the new RDO
structures should reflect any new regional structures which may be
proposed in the White Paper on Local Government (see section 10.2 for
further details on these proposals).
8.7 Shared Services with other Service Providers
8.7.1 As noted above, the Group considers that options for shared services
involving the wider public sector should be explored. There are limited
examples of the shared service approach being employed across the wider
public sector. One area where this is being pursued relates to the
assessment of means to determine entitlements to different public benefits
or services across multiple organisations.
Means Testing
8.7.2 A number of public bodies are involved in means testing to assess claims
for different benefits. In particular, this includes the Department of Social
Protection for social welfare entitlements, the HSE for the purposes of
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