Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of offices that his Department intends to close around the State. [29620/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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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.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Briefly Minister, because you are over time already.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Perhaps I will come back to it if Deputy Ferris asks a supplementary question.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. I congratulate the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Tom Hayes, on his promotion. I suppose it will be the only medal Tipperary will get this year, but he might think differently about it.

The transfer of administrative staff will have a major impact on the people concerned. This goes back to the 45 km decision under the Croke Park agreement, which, I believe, was a disgraceful negotiation under which the leaders of the trade union movement were effectively compromising on the least well off in the public service. I have before me the payments to the public servants to which I referred. The net weekly pay for clerical staff is €487.20. Most of the people I know on that income are being redeployed. There is a round trip of 78 km per day or 400 km per week without any subsistence or any travel expenses going towards it. It is disgraceful that people on the lowest income in the public service, many of whom have mortgages, young families and houses in negative equity, to keep their jobs are compelled to travel that distance despite the losses and so forth.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Deputy, can I ask you to put your supplementary question, please?

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Does the Minister agree? Is there any way this can be looked at again? Is there any way that those being redeployed should be given a transfer in their area? There are other Departments in Tralee where these ten clerical officers could be redeployed rather than putting them through the terrible trauma of travelling to and from Killarney on a daily basis and given the cost factor associated with it and the impact it is having on them and their families.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I probably should have come to that particular issue earlier. The decision to centralise administrative functions is already being implemented. Administrative work has already been transferred out of several regional offices successfully, notably those in Ennis, Clonakilty, Limerick and Tipperary, without any negative implications for the provision of services to farm clients.

I realise this has put several people out in terms of having to travel further distances to work. Tralee is next on the list. While there are currently no available redeployment options in Tralee for departmental staff, the establishment of a shared payroll service in Killarney has led to a request from the relevant agency to transfer our Tralee staff to the shared payroll services in Killarney. The Department is prepared to accede to this request and will do so in line with the procedures laid down in the Croke Park agreement. The staff in Tralee have exercised their right under the Croke Park agreement to have the matter referred to the Labour Relations Commission for arbitration. My understanding is that an initial hearing took place yesterday, 18 June. When we get some feedback from that process we will obviously take it into account.

I assure Deputy Ferris that one of my jobs as the head of the Department is to try to look after my staff as best I can.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Thank you, Minister.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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We are trying to do that while, at the same time, introduce the necessary changes to reduce the cost of running the Department and maintain services in order that we can spend more money on farmers, farming schemes, supporting agriculture and so on. That is what we are trying to do and in so doing we are not asking anyone to step aside and no one will lose their jobs. Their jobs are safe and are being maintained. We are asking administrative staff to move from one Department to another and, in this case, to move from Killarney to Tralee.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Minister, we are over time on this question.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Let us wait and see what the Labour Relations Commission process brings up and we will certainly take it into account.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Briefly, Deputy Ferris, because we are well over time.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I understand.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I will allow you a little time.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I am entitled to ask a supplementary question.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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You are, but before we go on I wish to remind Ministers and Deputies that there are six minutes in total for each question, with two minutes for the Minister to reply and then four minutes for supplementary questions over and back.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to put a supplementary question.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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We have gone way over, but I will allow you some latitude. Go ahead, Deputy.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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The concern I have for these workers is that many have a problem with this. At least one is a single parent with a young daughter and is living off €478.20 per week. That person will be spending a further €60 or €70 per week on transport without any certainty about whether there will be reimbursement. That is a serious problem. One of the people involved has a mortgage and all of them are in negative equity. It is a serious problem and it needs to be addressed. I hope the Labour Relations Commission will come down and grant them their entitlements but it is up in the air at the moment. I appreciate the fact that the Minister has stated he does not want any of his staff penalised as a consequence of redeployment, but it is important that there is some certainty for them for the future.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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We are moving on to Question No. 3 but first I wish to reiterate that six minutes in total is the time allocated for each question, with two minutes for the Minister to reply and then four minutes for supplementary questions. I call on the Minister to be as brief as possible and we will get to as many questions as we can.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Point taken.