Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I would like to pursue a little further the Tánaiste's reply about the information which will be made available to the Opposition and the House in advance of the budget. I ask her specifically about the statement made by the Minister for Finance last night that it is his wish to have a redundancy scheme across the public service. Is it intended to present a paper to the House setting out the areas, Departments and State agencies where the Government considers there are numbers or posts which are surplus to requirement?

In that regard, I draw the Tánaiste's attention to a reply to a parliamentary question she gave yesterday to my colleague, Deputy Joan Burton, which showed that in her Department, there are now 46 civil servants working in her private and constituency office and in the private and constituency offices of her Ministers of State.

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