Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 91: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the reason he took a decision to close the district veterinary office in Mullingar, and all services for the counties of Westmeath and Offaly to be provided from a regional centre in Tullamore; the reason the office has now to be relocated, to Tullamore, which currently has no space available to accommodate any additional personnel that have to relocate from Mullingar and which will impose an obligation upon his Department to rent additional facilities to accommodate the staff that have to transfer; if a review of this decision can take place and same be reversed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32000/09]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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On 15th July, the Government approved my plan for a reorganisation of my Department's Local Office Network. The plan involves reducing, from 57 to 16, the number of offices from which the Department will operate District Veterinary, Forestry and Agricultural Environment and Structures support services in the future. This will result in a reduction of some 400 in the number of staff working in my Department. While this will yield significant savings for the exchequer, no staff will be made redundant.

In terms of the offices selected for enhancement as a regional office or selected for closure, no one single criterion was used. Rather each decision was based on a combination of criteria including geographical spread, ownership of building, standard of accommodation, staff availability, opportunities for staff redeployment, potential alternative use for buildings and caseload/demand for services. The decisions on which offices to enhance and which to close were not based on the performance of any office or staff, rather decisions as outlined above were made in relation to the overall strategy. The Department is currently in discussion with other departments in relation to the redeployment of staff and transfer of buildings.