Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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304. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 187 of 14 January 2015, the reasons specific to her Department the workforce de-layering has not yet been achieved within her Department, as it has in the Health Service Executive in line with section 3.11, workforce restructuring, of the Haddington Road agreement and section 4.2.1 - iii, develop options for workforce de-layering, start Q1 2014, end Q4 2014, of the action plan, appendix 1 of the Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016; if she will initiate workforce de-layering with immediate effect; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3619/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has overarching responsibility for human resource management policy in the Civil Service and his Department is currently considering options for advancing the objective of grade restructuring as one of a number of actions to strengthen Human Resource Strategy and resourcing policies. Action 16 of the recent Civil Service Renewal Plan also provides for the redesign of organisational and grade structures in order to simplify them so that all roles and responsibilities are clear.

I refer the Deputy to the reply of my colleague the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on 14 January 2015 which indicated that implementation of this provision will take place during the term of the Renewal Plan and will be subject of discussions with Staff representatives. Commitments such as those referred to in the Deputy's question apply to the Civil Service as a whole and are implemented on a service-wide basis, rather than individually decided at the level of each individual Government Department and Office, and come, therefore, within the ambit of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. It has, however, been a particular priority for my Department to ensure that the human resources of the Department are used in an efficient and effective way to support the achievement of Government objectives.