Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

The Deputy will appreciate that some of the issues raised in her question relate to budgetary matters which will be addressed in December's budget. I do not propose to pre-empt any decisions of the Government on the budget in my reply, nor have I done so in any discussions with public service sectoral interests, and I have met a cross-section of them. However, the programme for Government provides for a reduction of public service employees by between 18,000 and 21,000 by 2014, compared to the total number at the end of 2010 and to reduce that number by a further 4,000 by 2015.

The necessary reduction in public service numbers to meet the sustainable targets set is well under way and the number employed has fallen below 300,000 for the first time since 2006. This process will also benefit from the anticipated number of retirements up to end of February 2012, when the option available to public servants, under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act, 2009, to retire on their pre-existing salaries expires. However, I need hardly emphasise the immense challenge this reduction in numbers provides and will continue to provide for the public service in the coming years, particularly when the pressures on all public services are increasing at a time when the resources available to fund our public services have never been so stretched. In order to protect front line services, the necessary reduction in numbers and resources will require a fundamental change to the way in which the Government and the public services operate. I tried to outline that today and I look forward to explaining it to the committees in more detail later.

To address current challenges and those that will inevitably arise in the coming years, I am confident that our public services and all of us as public servants will be flexible, adaptable and open to change as we go about our public work.

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