Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will give the reply to the Deputy afterwards. I presume I am entitled to do that, although that might be a presumption too far.

This came from the public service reform plan. We said we wished to proceed with the 47, but we retained one and there is a reason for that. On the remaining 46, we told the Departments to get on with the task of introducing legislation where that is required. We cannot simply say "just do it" in Soviet style. The Cabinet Ministers have entered into a policy commitment so they will do it.

With regard to the other areas in which we have sought reviews, we have accepted that rationalisation and mergers will occur in a quarter of them. We will examine further reviews but to suggest substantial progress has not been made and that agencies are not merging or being abolished is not true. In the education sector, the Further Education and Training Council, FETAC completed its amalgamation with HETAC, NQAI and IUQB to form the Quality and Qualifications Ireland. The number of VECs has been reduced from 33 to 16 and the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology and the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences have been merged. The Deputy should consider the reduction in the number of town councils in the environment sector and the mergers of city and council councils. Elsewhere, the Dublin Transportation Authority and Dublin Regional Authority have been amalgamated. It is not true to present this as a lack of progress.

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