My Department submitted its ‘Action Plan' under the Public Service (Croke Park) Agreement earlier this year. In early May, the Department submitted its first progress report on the implementation of that Action Plan. The report outlines the significant progress made by the Department, which has been engaged in a fundamental process of re-organisation, major reductions in staffing levels and improvement of its business processes, including major changes to the local office network. The report shows a reduction of 173 staff and total administrative savings of nearly €14million (including non-pay savings of over €4.7 million) since the end of March 2010, the reporting period for the Agreement.
Both the Action Plan and the Progress Report are published in full on my Department's website (please see 2011 Publications) and give comprehensive details of both the pay and non-pay savings to be achieved over the period of the Agreement to 2014.