Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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317. To ask the Minister for Health the number of quangos, State agencies or organisations under the remit of his Department that have been merged, reformed or abolished since 2011; the details of each of these measures in tabular form; the cost saving or service delivery improvement which has resulted; how many more he expects to be merged, reformed or abolished and the timeline for same; if he will provide a full list of all agencies and organisations under his remit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1979/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The table below sets out the statutory bodies operating under the aegis of my Department. No new statutory bodies have been established in the health sector since the formation of this Government.

Three bodies, the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery, National Social Workers Qualifications Board and the Children Acts Advisory Board have been dissolved since March 2011. The Public Service Reform document on 17th November 2011 identified three agencies under the aegis of this Department to be rationalised, amalgamated or abolished in 2012 - the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery, the Opticians Board and the National Cancer Registry Board. The National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery was dissolved on the 31^st December, 2011. The Opticians Board is to be subsumed into the Health and Social Care Professionals Council. The general scheme of Bill for this purpose was approved by Government and assigned to the Office of the Parliamentary Draftsman in July 2013. It is expected to be published in Q1 2014. In regard to the National Cancer Registry Board, with the ongoing changes to the structure of the HSE, and the fact that the Health Information Bill has not yet been enacted, I consider that it would not be appropriate to subsume the Registry into the HSE's National Cancer Control Programme at this time.

HIQA's role in the area of health and social care is expanding and it is envisaged that in future HIQA will be the body responsible for the licensing of public and private healthcare facilities. The future of the Mental Health Commission will be considered in the context of any re-alignment or amalgamation of the health and social care regulatory bodies. The move to Universal Health Insurance will have implications for the National Treatment Purchase Fund and Health Insurance Authority. I intend to restructure the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board so that it focuses specifically on the capital project, allowing the paediatric hospitals working together as the Children's Hospital Group to focus on the other functions previously held by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. With regard to the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council, I have decided that it should continue to operate in its present form for a further period and the matter will be kept under review with a view to proceeding with the integration with CORU when it is operationally ready to assume the functions involved, which is expected to be 3 or 4 years.

The extent of savings will vary between organisations and the majority of staff will be redeployed to other public service bodies, as was the case with the National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery. Efficiencies will derive from economies of scale and the elimination of duplication in areas such as recruitment, procurement, payroll and ICT systems. Savings will also arise from the dissolution of Agency Boards, some of which attract payment of travel and subsistence and/or Board fees.