Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are going to have a challenging budget for next year, but I will do what I did last year, that is, be upfront and honest with farming bodies and work closely with them, as I already do on the CAP and as we did last year in the build-up to the budget to try to find the savings we needed to make, as every Minister must do within his or her Department, to cut the cost of delivering services. We have, for example, reduced the number of district veterinary offices nationally from 67 to 18 in order to reduce the cost of service delivery. We have also reduced staff numbers in the Department. The cost of running my Department and its agencies has been reduced in the past 12 months by €18 million in order to avoid cutting farm incomes. We will continue in this vein to reduce expenditure where possible and avoid an impact on farmers. I will not give a commitment on what Fianna Fáil has sought in its notional motion which totally ignores-----

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