Michael Moynihan
Question:199. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Agriculture; Food and the Marine his plans to close any of his Department's offices in County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42412/12]
View answerThursday, 4 October 2012
Questions (199)
Written answers
My Department has two Regional Offices, in Clonakilty and in Cork city and a separate office from which the Marine functions are delivered in Clonakilty. As part of the reform process within my Department which has been ongoing for some time and has led to significant savings, I have decided to merge my Department’s Clonakilty activities in the Clogheen complex. This will leverage further cost savings while maintaining the highest level of services to shareholders. Administrative staff located at Darrara will, on their transfer to Clogheen, take up duties in the Marine Divisions of the Department and their former duties will be absorbed by the existing staff in the Cork Regional Office.
These arrangements will enable the Department to maintain service levels across the county with the result of leaner staffing levels into the future. It is important to point out that these changes will not negatively impact upon local access and services for local customers and frontline services will be fully maintained and public access for all of the Department's stakeholders will be available at Park Road. The Department vets, inspectors and technical officers will remain in place at Clonakilty to service our clients across all of the schemes that are provided from our Regional Offices. In Cork city, current services will continue as before.