Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 179: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the current number of staff at his Departments DVO office in Raphoe, County Donegal; the number staff that have left the office since 1 January 2005; and the number of the staff who have left have been replaced. [15949/12]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 180: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the range of services and work areas currently carried out at his Department's DVO Office in Raphoe, County Donegal; and the number of these services that are additional to the services and work areas carried out by the office in 2005. [15950/12]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 181: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to reduce the range of work areas currently carried out at his Departments DVO office in Raphoe, County Donegal. [15951/12]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 182: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will give a commitment that current staffing levels will be maintained at his Department's DVO office in Raphoe, County Donegal. [15952/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 179 to 182, inclusive, together.

As the Deputy will be aware, since 2009 my Department has been engaged in a local office reorganisation process, the purpose of which has been to ensure the continuity of a top quality service to its clients while at the same time recognising the harsh economic reality in which the public service has to operate.

The Raphoe Office is now one of 16 enhanced regional offices delivering schemes and services across the country. These offices provide an integrated service across the veterinary, AES, Single Payment Scheme and Forestry business units.

A management review of local offices in 2009 reported that with improved business processes, the Raphoe office could satisfactorily provide these services with some less administrative staff.

Up until now, there were no options available to my Department to redeploy surplus staff in or around Raphoe and, as a temporary measure, other work unrelated to the normal work of a Regional Office was sent to Raphoe to ensure all staff were fully occupied. The possibility has now arisen to redeploy a number of the surplus staff to other locations and my Department is pursuing that possibility in accordance with the terms set out in the Croke Park Agreement.