Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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54. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of agencies, quangos or other bodies within, funded by or established by her Department which have been scrapped, merged or reduced since this Government was formed; the amount saved in each case; the reduction in staff as a result; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1020/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The statutory bodies operating under the aegis of the Department of Social Protection are the Citizens Information Board, the Pensions Authority, the Pensions Council, the Pensions Ombudsman (which does not have a Board) and the Social Welfare Tribunal.

The Pensions Board was renamed the Pensions Authority on 7 March 2014.

The Public Service Reform Programme provided for a critical review which examined the potential to merge the Pensions Ombudsman with the Financial Services Ombudsman. The Critical Review was completed in 2013, and it recommended such a merger. The recommendations arising out of the Critical Review were approved by Government in April 2013. The process of merging the two organisations is now underway.

This work is advancing under an Inter-Departmental Steering Group chaired by the Department of Finance, with the participation of officials from the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform, and the offices of the two Ombudsmen. Preparations are being made for the offices to be co-located early 2015, and it is hoped that the legislative changes required for a formal merger will be proposed by the Minister for Finance in the second half of 2015. No significant savings are expected in advance of the full merger of the two organisations.