Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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169. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the plans there are to reduce the number of quangos and strip out the amassed red tape and bureaucracy that exists, in order to allow the delivery of projects under his Department’s remit in a more timely, efficient and customer-friendly manner; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68375/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The State bodies operating under the aegis of the Department of Social Protection are the Citizens Information Board, the Pensions Authority, the Pensions Council, the Social Welfare Tribunal and the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority. Each of these bodies fulfil essential functions and support the smooth functioning of the work of the Department. There are no plans to reduce their number.

The Department serves a wide and diverse group of customers including families, people in employment, unemployed people, people with illnesses and disabilities, carers, older people and employers. The Department administers over 140 separate schemes and services, making over 90 million individual payments every year.

Under the Department’s Statement of Strategy 2025-2028, it will continue to put the people it serves at the centre of all it does: designing, building, and providing efficient and effective services and towards this end, to continue developing its staff, structures, and processes. This statement of strategy supports the implementation of the priorities set out in the Programme for Government 2025: Securing Ireland’s Future and provides a framework for the ambitious programme of work to be undertaken by the Department over the next three years.