Minister Donohoe announces the winners of the 2019 Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Awards

20th November, 2019

The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, TD, has announced the winners of the 2019 Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Awards. The awards are held annually and were established under the Civil Service Renewal Plan to recognise the achievements of civil servants and showcase examples of best practice and innovation in Government Departments and Offices.

This year, to reflect a more inclusive way of working, several categories included projects from civil servants where they have collaborated with members of the public service. 

The awards ceremony was held in St. Patrick’s Hall, Dublin Castle, last night, and was attended by the shortlisted project teams, those involved in the awards process and senior civil servants.  Speaking at the event, Minister Donohoe congratulated all of the staff who participated in the awards and said:

‘Tonight is a very special night for the civil service and I congratulate all of the staff who worked on all of the projects as well as those of you who are connected to the award-winning initiatives. These projects highlight the innovation, passion and commitment of staff that we see every day. We are taking significant steps to foster a culture of innovation in the civil and public service and our people working every day in frontline service delivery or in policy focused areas are key to that.  We want to bring creativity and develop solutions to improve outcomes and deliver better services.’ 

The Minister was joined by the Secretary General to the Taoiseach and of the Department of the Taoiseach, Martin Fraser, who remarked:

‘The standard of projects this year was particularly high. When you look at all of the projects nominated for an award this evening you get a sense of the important, diverse and challenging work that is happening across the organisation. ‘  

The winners are:

Excellence in Policy Making and Implementation

Global Ireland: Expansion of Ireland’s Diplomatic Network – Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Excellence in Innovation

DBEI Innovation Week – Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation

Citizen Impact and Customer Service

Advanced Nursing Practice – Department of Health

Leading Reform

Single Scheme Administration Project – Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Excellence in People, Skill and Organisational Development

SMART Start – Year One Induction & Development Programme – Central Statistics Office

Excellence through Collaboration

Bail Supervision Scheme – Department of Children and Youth Affairs/ Irish Youth Justice Services

Research, Analytics and Insight

The ObSERVE Programme – Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment/Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Integrated Digital Excellence

Treatment Benefit goes Digital – Department of Employment Affairs & Social Protection

Excellence in Culture, Values and Diversity

Fresh Approaches to Driving Women’s Participation in the Arts and Culture Sector – Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Employee Engagement

IDEAS – Innovation in the Department of Education and Skills – Department of Education and Skills

World Class Civil Service

PAYE Modernisation – Office of the Revenue Commissioners


ENDS 

Note to editors: The awards were established under the Civil Service Renewal Plan. More information on the Plan is available here. This year 90 nominations were received from across the Civil Service and 32 projects were shortlisted.  There were 11 award winning projects.