Mr. Shay Cody:

Under the Croke Park agreement and, I think, into the future, management - and the country - will require an awful lot more interchangeability among public servants. We already have some significant examples, which were outlined in the implementation body report, of people moving from one employment to another, changing employers and being redeployed in different areas. There is a move towards a more rationalised set of public service terms and conditions, whether in pay or allowances - we have done this for sick leave and annual leave. Perhaps out of this whole shemozzle we may end up with a more rationalised structure. The initiative that was suggested by the Minister of some form of consolidation could actually tidy up some of those. I do not think it would be possible to tidy up everything, but some significant strides could be made that would facilitate the creation of a more unitary type of public service, which is what we are doing under the Croke Park agreement, whereby if somebody is not needed here and is needed over there, then on a fairly seamless basis we can migrate them from the less important job to a more important job.