Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The decision to manage staff resources within existing staff resources in effect means that staff vacancies arising will, in general, not be filled by means of external recruitment, which will result in a permanent reduction in the authorised staff complement for the Department. This will necessitate reviews of how staff are deployed within the Department to ensure that key areas of departmental activity are staffed adequately. The Department will endeavour to redeploy staff according to key business needs and levels of activity, to restructure workloads as appropriate and to achieve greater productivity through exploiting new technologies and availing of shared services arrangements. That is how it will work.

It is difficult to predict the numbers affected at this time as the budgetary effect will depend on the timing and grade of any vacancies that may arise due to staff leaving the Department, whether as a result of retirement, external promotion or any other reason. It is estimated, based on averages, that approximately ten posts will be affected.

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