Seán Conlan (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

On Tuesday, 15 March, it came to my attention that, under the local office reorganisation plan, the departmental offices at Ballybay, Birr, Monaghan town, Mullingar and Portlaoise were to close from 20 May 2011. Regional offices are to be established within the next two months in Cavan town, Naas and Tullamore. In the meantime, the personnel division along with the local office line managers will make arrangements to visit the local office. This decision needs to be reviewed. I have studied the issue and I have examined when the decision was made. I believe it was made in July 2009 by the previous Minister but I would like this to be confirmed. However, it needs to be reviewed for a number of reasons. The terms of reference for the original reconfiguration need to be examined and a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed move needs to be conducted. It is my understanding the office will be closed to the public but the staff will remain in the office and, therefore, there is no saving in closing the public office.

The facility benefits the State in that the veterinarians based in Ballybay provide a disease control service along the Border and for every farmer in County Monaghan. People may not realise that the distance between north and south Monaghan and Cavan town is approximately 50 miles. A cost-benefit analysis is needed because the veterinarians operating out of Ballybay have to drive to Cavan in the morning, clock in, return to Ballybay to carry out the tests and then drive back to Cavan in the evening. They will incur substantial travel expenses. The Ballybay office is unique because the export mart is located beside it. Monaghan exports more live cattle and poultry than any other county in the Republic.

Cost is a major issue. What cost a brucellosis free State for the farming community? The DVO in Ballybay is seven miles from the Border and Keady in County Armagh where there is a brucellosis problem. I am not sure people in the Republic know this but the veterinarians in the Ballybay DVO are fully aware that many farmers along the border between counties Monaghan and Armagh own farms on both sides of the Border and some farms straddle the Border. They can keep a close eye on cattle movements along the Border and that is why we have our disease free status.

I do not see any rationale for moving the frontier back towards Cavan town, which is many miles removed from the Border. Monaghan has the longest border with Northern Ireland of any county in the Republic. There is an opportunity to review this decision. It should be reviewed and I want to get to the bottom of why the decision was made in the first place. That is why the terms of reference for the original reconfiguration need to be examined. Offices will be located in Cavan town, Naas and Tullamore and I do not understand the rationale behind these locations, especially in a regional context.

I refer to the all-Ireland disease free status. Ballybay is centrally placed, as it is surrounded by counties Fermanagh, Tyrone and Armagh. If we want to achieve this status, the town would provide a centrally placed office from which veterinarians could operate. If we could get rid of the partitionist mindset in the long term and start to consider this issue in an all-Ireland context, Ballybay would be a centrally placed office in which to have the veterinarians situated. The reason they have not been moved is that there is no physical space for them in the Cavan office. There would have to be substantial capital investment to house them there. Can we afford as a nation to spend this money when an office is available in Ballybay? The files stored in Ballybay were taken to Sligo last October. It makes no sense to store files in Sligo for an office that is supposed to be located in Cavan when they were perfectly well contained in the Ballybay office.

I would like the decision to be reviewed and the terms of reference of the reconfiguration to be examined again. The decision should not be implemented. I understand the previous Minister made the decision and I would like clarification in this regard as well.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am replying to the debate on behalf of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I hope the reply clarifies the process that has been undertaken. As part of an ongoing process of reviews of key areas of departmental activities, the structure of the Department's network of local offices was reviewed in 2008-09. Following extensive internal analysis of the various options, a substantial programme of rationalisation was agreed by the Minister in July 2009 and these proposals were endorsed by the Government on 15 July 2009.

This restructuring of the Department's geographic and regional spread was geared towards enhancing service delivery to farmers and to the agrifood sector generally. This was achieved through widening the scope and availability of services at all offices and by combining under one single geographic location the services that were previously delivered in various locations in respect of district veterinary operations, forestry operations and agricultural environment and structures support services. The benefits of this concentration of resources and professional expertise at all regional offices has provided customers with access to services at any of the regional offices within the network and not just the office where the customer is resident, as was the case in the past.

Under the Government approved plan, instead of having a presence in every county, or more than one in many counties, a new regional structure of 16 offices will replace a total of 58 separate office locations throughout the country. This plan is in its final phase and is due to be completed within the next two months. Under the plan, 13 of the 16 regional offices have been established at Castlebar, Clonakilty, Cork city, Drumshanbo, Enniscorthy, Galway, Navan, Limerick, Raphoe, Roscommon town, Tipperary town, Tralee and Waterford city. By the end of May, following the establishment of regional offices at Cavan, Naas and Tullamore, it is expected that the full 16 regional office network will be complete and 38 offices will have closed to the public. The DVO element of the Department's Ballybay office will transfer to Cavan as set out in the 2009 plan, although this office will continue in operation engaged in other activities on behalf of this Department and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

The reorganisation of the various activities of the Department over recent years has been a key driver in reducing its overall cost base. Since 2005, the Department has reduced its staff by almost 1,500. Changes have led to the redeployment of approximately 400 staff to other Departments, including the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform for the operation of the PULSE system in Castlebar, and to local offices of the Department of Social Protection and, to a lesser extent, other Departments. In addition, a further 600 staff were redeployed internally to new and expanding work areas, including the single payment scheme and the implementation of new environmental, food safety and animal health controls required by the EU.

These savings were identified as a result of the effects of changes in the Department's work practices, improved business processes, the greater use of computerisation and the wind up of livestock offices. They reflect many of the changes in policy direction arising from CAP reform, the continued implementation of the Department's decentralisation plan, the findings of the organisational review programme and the objectives set out in the Government's Transforming Public Services programme.

The internal reviews carried out into the Department's operations have highlighted changes in the workload of the local office network arising from a significant decreases in the incidence of animal diseases; CAP reform, which gave rise to significant changes in the nature of farm-related schemes and services and the consequential manner in which these are delivered; significant investment in information technology, especially in the areas of animal health and welfare, customer management, animal movement identification and the management of field inspections; reduced footfall in offices nationwide driven by greater levels of in-house efficiency and improved online services to customers; and advances in broader infrastructural areas such as transport and communications.

Bearing these changes in mind, the aim of the local office reorganisation is to rationalise the overall number of locations across the country to facilitate the more efficient management of schemes, services and disease levels and to enhance services to clients of the Department. In addition, there are significant savings in the resources deployed to these activities.

The financial savings from the reorganisation of the local offices are very significant and for 2011 the reduction in running costs amount to some €20 million and the reduction of more than 250 staff. For 2012, the reduction in running costs is expected to be some €30 million with an overall reduction from the programme of over 400 staff.

I take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation to the staff in local offices for their contribution to the work of the Department and to their continued commitment to providing a quality service to all its stakeholders. I would also like to assure this House and the Department's key clients of our continued commitment to providing an exemplary support service across all areas of departmental activities, which I strongly believe will be best delivered through continued reform and innovation. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.