Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. This matter has arisen out of concerns in a small town of 800 to 900 people, with 70 permanent and full-time Government jobs which, hopefully, will be there forever and a day. However, given the shifting sands of macro-economics, there is some gossip and there are indications of changes, redeployment, etc. I would be grateful for a reply from the Minister of State.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Mooney for raising this matter. Following the successful reorganisation of the Department's local office structure, which resulted in the reduction from 58 to 16 of the local offices, and in the context of the Croke Park agreement which committed the public sector, including the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to maximise efficiencies and productivity in the use of resources through revised work practices, the Department conducted a review of work carried out in the remaining local offices. The objective of the review was to identify any non-essential activities, to identify which, if any, of the essential functions should be organised differently and to make recommendations which would inform the Department's longer-term vision and strategy for delivery of such services in the light of reducing public service numbers.

The review made several recommendations aimed at improving business processes both within the local offices and in regard to the manner in which it implements various schemes, in particular the disease eradication schemes, with a view to reducing the administrative burden on farmers and the cost to the Department of administering these schemes. The recommendations included, for example, that passports should no longer be taken up from restricted herds and that the practice of issuing movement permits for clear cattle in reactor herds should be discontinued.

The report of the review group fits in both with the Department's objectives in driving efficiency and savings and with the broad public service reform agenda. Centralising administrative procedures will enable the Department to reduce the number of administrative staff it requires to support veterinary office operations and, accordingly, the cost of providing its services. This is in line with Government policy. In addition, the centralisation of administrative functions will facilitate the redeployment of staff from the local offices to other State agencies and thereby enable the Government to provide services through these agencies more efficiently.

I should emphasise that the centralisation of administrative functions will not negatively impact on local access and services for local customers. The Department vets, inspectors and technical officers will remain in place at these offices to service our clients across all of the schemes which are provided from regional offices. In view of this, front-line services will be maintained and public access for all of the Department's stakeholders will continue to be available at the 16 regional offices.

In line with the Minister's decision to centralise administrative services, administrative functions have been already transferred out of a number of regional offices, notably, Ennis, Clonakilty, Limerick and Tipperary, without any negative implications for the provision of services to farmer clients. The transfer of the administrative functions out of other regional offices, such as Drumshanbo, to which the Senator refers, will be considered in light of the availability of opportunities to redeploy the staff concerned to support other critical public services.

In this context, the Department has been in contact with a number of State agencies, including the Department of Social Protection, in regard to the establishment of redeployment opportunities generally with a view to progressing the centralisation process.

The Department fully understands the concerns expressed by the local staff in Drumshanbo in regard to redeployment but I would like to stress that the intention is that the administrative work will be transferred out of the that office only if it can be replaced by work from some other State agency.

Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)
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I am very grateful to the Minister of State for the reply. Trying to get to the core of what these replies are about is a little like going through a jungle with a machete. There must be context to these replies but the core of this reply is that the concerns expressed are understood by the Department. It seemed to suggest there are ongoing discussions between the Department, the Department of Social Protection and a number of State agencies, which is rather interesting. It would be interesting to explore that on another day and exactly where they are leading.

I am particularly reassured that the administrative work will be transferred only if it can be replaced by work from other agencies, which would seem to suggest the current level of the workforce in the Drumshanbo office will be maintained, albeit perhaps in a different context. That seems to be the gist of what the reply was about.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I will not comment on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine side but, wearing my public sector reform hat, I would say what the Senator said is right. We are trying to reconfigure the entire system to get greater efficiencies. In a circumstance where we have taken 30,000 people out of the public sector and more are to go, we must do this but the way we do it is the key. It is not that towns will be denuded of public services but they might see a transformation in the public office.

The two largest clients the OPW has are Revenue and the Department of Social Protection. There is a huge demand on their services given the scale of the problems in the economy. It is like a gigantic chess game. To take one service out, one must put in another service, assuming one can create those efficiencies. There are examples of where we have rationalised offices. We find that we can provide a number of services in one office, although I cannot comment on whether this will be the case in Drumshanbo. As the Minister said, there is some hope for the people there that public service authorities will continue to require public service workers to do essential work there, although where it is in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is another matter.

We continue to work with a range of Departments to get the best possible deal for the public service generally and, indeed, for Drumshanbo. I recognise that there are a number of staff there and that people live, work and spend money locally. It is important we do everything we can to ensure towns like Drumshanbo remain on their feet by having these offices in place.

Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State.