Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 494: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the staffing levels in his Departments Raphoe, County Donegal local office broken down by grade; his plans to further reduce staff numbers; if a staff/work ratio review has been carried out; if he believes that the office can continue to provide a service to the farming community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16093/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The staffing level in my Department's Raphoe office, broken down by grade and expressed as full time equivalents, is as follows:

As the Deputy will be aware, since 2009 my Department has been engaged in a local office reorganisation process, the purpose of which has been to ensure the continuity of a top quality service to its clients while at the same time recognising the harsh economic reality in which the public service has to operate.

The Raphoe Office is one of 16 enhanced regional offices delivering schemes and services across the country. These offices provide an integrated service across the veterinary, AES, Single Payment Scheme and Forestry business units.

A management review of local offices in 2009 reported that with improved business processes, the Raphoe office could satisfactorily provide these services with less than the current complement of administrative staff.

Up until now, there were no options available to my Department to redeploy surplus staff in or around Raphoe and, as a temporary measure, other work unrelated to the normal work of a Regional Office was sent to Raphoe to ensure all staff were fully occupied. The possibility has now arisen to redeploy a number of the surplus staff to other locations and my Department is pursuing that possibility in accordance with the terms set out in the Croke Park Agreement.