Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The Taoiseach elaborated in his reply that an exercise was undertaken to look at the cost-effectiveness of the service and that it was decided that a centralised service would be less cost-effective. I ask him to elaborate on what was priced and what were the savings shown up in that exercise.

I wish to ask a general question about whether he takes responsibility for looking at the cost-effectiveness of back office services in Departments. I understand on the last count, 85 people are employed in press and information services across the 15 Departments. This seems excessive, a total of six or seven people involved in press and information services work for every Minister. Does the Taoiseach regard it as his role to examine the cost-effectiveness or has he requested an expenditure review exercise to be done on this type of back office service? It is the case now that every area is being looked at with an eye to making savings and I would be interested to know whether that area has come under scrutiny in any way.

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