Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

The point made by Deputy Hogan is very important. Local authorities will not need as many planning officials as they did because there will be fewer planning applications to administer. People in planning might be the right people to put into the roles of heritage officers. It is important that rather than stating this as an aspiration, the Government implements it. This is the most important public service reform of all. We need to keep jobs in the public sector but we need to deploy them to where they are needed.

The Minister stated that numbers in the public sector must be reduced because that is Government policy. Does this mean the Government has adopted the McCarthy report? I thought it had not.

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