A reform of the civil service should include a link between performance and pay, Aontú leader Peadar Toibín has said.
The Meath West TD was speaking as civil servants in the UK are set to be paid higher salaries if they do more work, under plans to boost productivity there.
Mr Toibín told Newstalk Breakfast a similar approach here should be part of wider reforms.
"I do believe we have to have reform of the civil service in Ireland, especially at the higher end of it," he said.
"We have an incredibly hierarchical civil service here which inhibits innovation and stops people providing good solutions in society.
"I do believe as well we need to bring in more people from outside the civil service into the civil service on an annual basis.
"There's a difficulty with regards accountability in the civil service at the moment.
"I think that performance and pay and accountability are all tied together.
"Anyone else who works in the private enterprise knows that their productivity, or their accountability, will lead to their wages in some fashion - either up or static - so there needs to be that link".
'Transparent system'
Mr Toibín said those who don't pull their weight are a 'threat' to services.
"People within the civil service who don't do their job are not just a threat to wider delivery of that service, but also to their colleagues as well," he said.
"Often times their colleagues have to pick up the work that they're not doing and do it themselves.
"So there definitely needs to be a proper, transparent, performance management system within the civil service".
Mr Toibín said such a system could be easy to implement here.
"Every day, in every business, in the private sector we have systems whereby people's productivity is benchmarked against the productivity of other people in the business," he said.
"It is possible to benchmark people's productivity in terms of their output in innovation, in quality and in general output against other people working in the sector - and... in the private sector too.
"To do that it just needs the necessary HR skills, but it needs the political will to do it," he added.
