The Department of Finance has announced an internal reorganisation to focus on economic planning and performance monitoring.
The reorganisation includes the creation of an economics division.
It also announced the creation of a project management unit to deliver commitments in the EU/IMF programme and in the Department's own strategy document, which was published today.
The Department 's statement of strategy said its mission ''is to manage Government finances and play a central role in the achievement of the Government's economic and social goals having regard to the Programme for Government''.
''In this way we will play a leadership role in the improvement of the standards of living of our citizens,'' it added.
Today's statement from the Department of Finance also sets out its revised organisational structure, which will be based on four key policy divisions - international, fiscal, financial and economic - and the setting up of an corporate office and a finance office.
The recently appointed Secretary General at the Department of Finance, John Moran, said he wants to encourage an open culture within the Department where people are capable of speaking openly about what they want to say.
He said the Department is setting a up a number of themed committees to encourage debate around issues, and these discussions can be passed up to the Minister and the Economic Council.
The Department wanted to move away from crisis management to much more strategic planning, and that required extra resources, he added.
"If you want to really have sustained delivery of good policy choices, you have to invest in that. And that will mean investing in training, enhancing the use of technology in the department to make us a lot more efficient, and every so often, actually investing in bringing in extra skill sets," he stated.
The Department's statement of strategy is divided to cover two main time periods - 2011 to 2012 and 2012 to 2014. It said that for 2011, the Department's goals and objectives were mainly driven by the EU/IMF programme and the restoration of stability in the banking system.
It said it was ''proactively'' revisiting those goals in the years up to 2014 and the new statement of strategy sets out the Department's objectives to contribute to enhanced confidence and delivering sustainable growth in the economy.
The Finance Department has five main goals. It says its first goal is to have a resilient Irish economy founded on sustainable and balanced growth and leading to significant increases in employment numbers.
Its other goals include a sustainable macroeconomic environment and sound public finances, an improvement in the living standards of Irish citizens and a return to international debt markets so as to activate an exit from the funding programme at the earliest possible date.
The Department also wants to complete the structuring of the banking system and to ensure a vibrant, secure and well regulated financial sector is in place.
