Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

There is no embarrassment. We are not endeavouring to gut any organisation, not least the Equality Authority. I have justified my decision to do what I have to do. I accept that significant cuts will be imposed on these bodies. I abolished a number of bodies. I decided to focus on some of the more soft issues in the Department to achieve a significant reduction. I repeat that Deputy Flanagan's party wanted greater reductions in the budgets of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and all other Departments. The Fine Gael spokesperson, Deputy Bruton, was calling for it all the time. If we were to implement the cuts the party wanted, we would have had to decimate all the organisations within my Department.

The savings through decentralisation are €440,000 in rent in Dublin and €102,000 in Roscrea. More room is available. The landlord in Roscrea has been helpful and the building is in a beautiful location. I do not accept there is a loss of intelligence. None of us is indispensable and the Equality Authority will be able to function as well in Roscrea as anywhere. This is an insult to Roscrea.

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