Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 69: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs his plans to merge the development functions of Údarás na Gaeilge with a new enterprise agency comprising Enterprise Ireland and the county enterprise boards and others; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41648/09]

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 100: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if he will confirm that there will not be staff reductions of approximately 40 positions in Údarás na Gaeltachta; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41649/09]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 69 and 100 together.

As I stated in my reply to today's Priority Question No 56, the recommendations in the Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes represent a set of options that are being considered by Government in the context of the 2010 Budget. It has been well flagged that we need to make serious inroads in the gap in the public finances between income and expenditure. The Report from the Special Group has provided a broad range of measures for consideration by Government in that regard. As the Deputy will be aware, it proposes a range of savings relating to various functions of my Department.Towards that end, it proposes that a number of schemes be abolished or reduced and it also makes specific recommendations regarding agencies under the aegis of my Department and, indeed, the Department itself.

However, I believe that it would not be appropriate for me to engage in a line by line discussion of the recommendations of the Report from the Special Group, not least because of the work that is in train by Government to frame the Budget. That said, I can confirm that legislative proposals in regard to the powers and functions of Údarás na Gaeltachta are being considered in the general context of the recommendations contained in the Report of the Linguistic Study of the Use of Irish in the Gaeltacht and the work of the Cabinet Committee on Irish and the Gaeltacht. I can assure the Deputy that any proposals arising from those deliberations will have due regard to the optimal appropriate structure for Údarás na Gaeltachta in the future.