Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To reiterate, an enormous amount of work has been done to identify the staff involved in areas that will henceforth be the responsibility of the new agency. After letters issued in January, the staff identified have been agreed and have agreed. Where necessary there has been a strong HR process; the work has been done and there is continuing validation in regard to some staff. This is obviously a very big exercise. When one disagregates from a very large body such as the HSE clearly a great amount of work is involved. It has gone extremely well and there has been considerable co-operation from staff, on both the administrative side and by social or other care workers. In addition, the HSE has managed to be very supportive. For example, one of the key jobs we must do is to set up new financial arrangements and in this respect the organisation has been extremely supportive. That is all progressing very well to enable a separate payroll to be established on the establishment of the agency, which is essential. A payroll is in place for foster care, for example. There are probably about 27 different mechanisms for paying foster parents and all of them have to be brought together. An enormous amount of work has been done.

I refer to the Deputy's point about administrative staff. There is no question of transferring an excess of such staff over front-line workers. This has all been looked into very carefully. Letters issued and were agreed much earlier this year.