Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In my Department there is no difficulty. In other Departments I think there are areas of difficulty. In my Department I can point to an area of productivity. In the period of benchmarking we have had to take a 4% cut in salary and a 4% cut in numbers. The Department will achieve the target and additional functions and work will have to be taken on in a number of areas. That work has been done, I am assured, with no diminution in service.

People have taken on extra work, and have changed functions and responsibilities. This has taken place across the public service. Now there is far more engagement with the public and with clients and there are different means of access. It is working well. In other Departments, about which I cannot talk, there have been extraordinary productivity gains, which unfortunately do not get into the public domain. This may be the fault of the Department or of the system but there are excellent examples. When these see the light of day, in fairness to civil servants, it will show that significant productivity increases have taken place in many of these areas.

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