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

My Department has no plans to close down any more local offices, the Deputy will be glad to hear. However, following a successful restructuring of my Department's local office network, the number of local offices was reduced from 58 to 16. This was an impressive exercise and the civil and public servants working in my Department did a fantastic job in this regard.

My Department has reviewed the business processes and procedures and, in particular, the administrative support requirements in its remaining local offices. Arising from this review, the Department introduced several significant changes earlier this year to the procedures for the implementation of controls in the context of the TB eradication programme. These changes and, in particular, the decisions not to take up passports from restricted herds and to abolish the movement permit requirement for clear cattle in restricted herds have significantly reduced the administrative staffing requirement in the local offices. In light of these changes and the falling incidence of disease in Ireland the review also recommended that further substantial efficiencies would accrue from the centralisation of administrative support in one or more centralised offices. My Department is in the process of implementing this recommendation and has already transferred the administrative functions out of several local offices. The transfer of the administrative functions out of other regional offices will be considered in light of the availability of opportunities to redeploy the staff concerned to support other critical public services. I should emphasise that these changes will not negatively impact upon local access and services for local customers. Front-line services will be fully maintained and public access for all of the Department's stakeholders will continue to be available at all 16 regional offices. The Department vets, inspectors and technical officers will remain in place at these offices to service our clients across all of the schemes that are provided from our regional offices.

I suspect what Deputy Ferris is getting at relates to Tralee and Killarney.

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