Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 73: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the position regarding the Croke Park agreement; if he has received implementation plans for this agreement from his Department and each State agency under his remit; the status of these implementation plans; the discussion he has had with the EU and IMF regarding the agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29686/11]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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The Public Service Agreement, 2010-2014 (the Croke Park agreement) provides a framework for public service management and staff to work together to reduce the cost of delivery of public services while also maintaining or improving the quality of those services. An Implementation Body was established to drive the implementation of the Agreement across all sectors and ensure that early, robust and verifiable reforms were secured which would in turn lead to verifiable and sustainable savings in the cost of public service delivery. My Department's initial Action Plan under the Croke Park Agreement was submitted to the Implementation Body in October 2010, followed by a second iteration in early January 2011. The initiatives in the Action Plan, which build on on-going reforms in the Department's business processes, are kept under continuous review and have yielded significant savings in the administrative costs of running the Department. These reforms are contributing to the effort to meet the challenge of maintaining the range, quality and geographic scope of the policy, programme management, promotional and front-line citizen services provided by the Department with the reduced resources available.

The Department regularly reports to the Implementation Body, most recently this week, on progress made in implementing the actions specified in our Action plan as well as on savings being achieved. These progress and savings reports are published on the Department's and the Implementation Body's websites. My Department is fully cognisant of the extremely difficult economic and budgetary circumstances facing the State. Under my direction, it remains fully committed to ensuring that its responsibilities are fulfilled and that the frontline services it provides to the public are delivered as cost-effectively as possible. It is working hard to achieve reforms and savings within the specified timeframes and I am very satisfied with the progress being made in this regard. There are no State bodies under the aegis of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has overall responsibility for coordinating the implementation of the Croke Park Agreement and for leading any discussions that may be appropriate with representatives of the EU or the IMF on that subject.