Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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173. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will reverse the decision to close all public District Veterinary Offices desks throughout the country in view of the low computer literacy skills of many older farmers; if he will ensure that a number of regional public desks are established; if he will ensure that the Roscommon office provides such a service in view of its strategic location; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42859/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department has not made any decision to close down all public District Veterinary Offices. The position is that, following on from the successful restructuring of my Department’s local office network, which reduced the number of local offices from 58 to 16, my Department has decided to centralise the administrative support currently provided in the local offices into two offices, Cavan and Portlaoise.

The decision to centralise the administrative support is based on a review by the Department of the business processes and procedures and, in particular, the administrative support requirements, in its remaining Local Offices. Arising from this review, the Department introduced a number of significant changes earlier this year to the procedures in relation to the implementation of controls in the context of the TB eradication programme. These changes and, in particular, the decision not to take up passports from restricted herds and to abolish the movement permit requirement for clear cattle in restricted herds, combined with the eradication of Brucellosis and a substantial reduction in the incidence of TB in the country, has significantly reduced the administrative staffing requirement in the local offices. In light of these developments, the review concluded that further significant efficiencies in terms of the number of administrative staff required will accrue from the centralisation of administrative support in one or more centralised office(s).

My Department is in the process of implementing this recommendation and has already transferred the administrative functions out of a number of local offices, including Clonakilty, Limerick and Tipperary. The transfer of the administrative functions out of other regional offices, including Roscommon, will be considered in light of the availability of opportunities to redeploy the staff concerned to support other critical public services.

Centralising administrative procedures will enable my 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 re-deployment of staff from the regional offices to other State agencies and, thereby, enable the Government to provide services through these agencies more efficiently.

I would like to emphasise that the centralisation of the administrative functions of the local offices should not negatively impact upon local access and services for local customers and experience to-date indicates that there has been no negative impact on the services provided by these offices. The Department vets, inspectors and technical officers will remain in place at these offices to service our clients across all of the schemes that are provided from our Regional Offices. In view of this, I am satisfied that frontline services will be fully maintained and public access for all of the Departments stakeholders will continue to be available at the 16 regional offices, including Roscommon.