Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

With regard to the second matter, the moratorium decision applies to a range of people, including the temporary appointment on a fixed-term basis and the renewal of such contracts. Any exceptions to this principle, which will arise in very limited circumstances, require the prior sanction of the Minister for Finance. This sanction will be forthcoming only when the Minister is satisfied that the post is essential to the delivery of a public service or to the performance of an essential function and that every effort has been made to fill the post by redeployment. The consent and agreement of the Minister for Finance is required to ensure we have control over public service numbers as a component of controlling public finances generally.

With regard to the Equality Authority, recently the Minister agreed in principle to a request from the chair of the Equality Authority to delay on hardship grounds the transfer of staff from Dublin to Roscrea. He asked his officials to work out details on a case by case basis with the acting chief executive officer of the authority and to review the situation again in 2011 when other aspects of the wider decentralisation programme are due to be reviewed. I have not seen the reply given yesterday to which the Deputy referred. Whether it took account of this arrangement which was expressed by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government at his party conference, this is the situation.

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