Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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672. To ask the Minister for Health the number of agencies or State bodies under the aegis of his Department that have been abolished since 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32242/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Four bodies, National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery, National Social Workers Qualifications Board, Children Acts Advisory Board and the Drug Treatment Centre Board (functions transferred to the HSE) have been dissolved since March 2011. There are now 19 agencies under the aegis of my department.

Appendix II of the Public Service Reform Plan published on 17th November 2011, 'Rationalisation of State Agencies', 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 31 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. The Bill will be published before the end of the month and is scheduled for debate in the Dail in September, 2014 with a view to enactment before year end. In the case of the National Cancer Registry Board, my predecessor decided that with the ongoing changes to the structure of the HSE, and the fact that the Health Information Bill has not yet been enacted, it would not be appropriate to subsume the Registry into the HSE's National Cancer Control Programme.