Mr. Robert Watt:

There was a great deal of political support in 2011 for reductions in the number of agencies, or quangos, as they are known colloquially. Our Minister was charged by the Government with this programme. The Minister and his colleagues have delivered on 181 of the closures or mergers and the Government is committed to doing that. From central Government, there are savings of around €20 million. For local authorities there are savings of around €40 million. However, there are also changes due to the simpler landscape. There were overlaps and duplication between different agencies, which affected their ability to deliver, so merging and streamlining will bring benefits over time, in addition to the monetary benefits. That programme has come to an end. It was very time-intensive, because it required us to go back and change legislation. Many new Bills had to be enacted. There were also major challenges for the management and staff of the organisations. Although an agency might have been merged, collapsed or abolished, the functions it was carrying out continued in most cases, because people believed they were valuable, and still do. In that sense, it was a difficult programme.