Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The terms outlined yesterday require the applications to be made by 17 November, as has been said, and for people to leave the service on 31 December in order that the moneys provided in this financial year can be disbursed on that basis. Of course this is a challenging issue for management and employee representatives to deliver but it must be done in the context of the availability of funds during the current financial year. That this is coming is not a surprise; it has been mooted for some time at these grades and I am sure contingency plans can be put in place. I accept that it is a challenging timescale but it is one we must meet. I believe with the spirit of the Croke Park agreement, the facilitation of re-deployment and the fact that these grades have been identified as having some surplus capacity, it should be possible to do this without any major disruption of services.

As we have seen with the medical card scheme, the centralisation of services has provided change. In the past under the old structure, there had been administrative staff throughout the various health boards but we now have one third of that number with the ability to provide a centralised service.

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