The Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2012, which was recently passed by the Oireachtas, will facilitate my Department's agency rationalisation programme, under which 21 agencies will be reduced to 11. The Local Government Management Services Board and the Local Government Computer Services Board are already merged, in an operational sense, with a common board, pending the establishment of the merged body — the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) — on a statutory basis. The LGMA will also take on the residual functions from An Chomhairle Leabharlanna, which will be dissolved.
The Fire Services Council's term of office expired on 30 June, 2009. The work of the Council was absorbed into the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management within the Department.
The Limerick Regeneration Agencies will be dissolved and their functions taken over by the new Office for Regeneration which has been established in Limerick City. The Regeneration Office has initially been set up with administrative support from Limerick City Council but will report directly to the Manager Designate of the new Limerick Unitary Authority once appointed.
The Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency (HSCA) has been established and is operating on an administrative basis. It rationalises the functions of the National Building Agency (NBA), the Affordable Homes Partnership (AHP) and the Centre for Housing Research (CHR). The AHP and the CHR have been closed down and the NBA ceased operating in June 2011.
Comhar (Sustainable Development Council) was discontinued at the end of 2011 and its sustainable development role has been integrated into the work of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC).
The Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2011 proposes to amend existing dormant accounts legislation so as to dissolve the Dormant Accounts Board and transfer the statutory functions of the Board to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. It has passed all stages in the Seanad and is currently at Report and Final Stage in the Dáil and is scheduled for early July 2012.
The operations of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) will be wound up over the next eighteen months. Under its recently appointed new Board, this transitional period will allow the Authority to progress elements of on-going work and to make the necessary preparations for the migration to new arrangements, to be decided by the Government.
At the end of March 2012, the total staff number employed by State agencies under my Department's aegis was 782.9 whole time equivalents (WTE), a reduction of 168 WTE (18%) as compared to 951 at end 2008. The payroll savings associated with these staff reductions are estimated to be of the order of €9.74m.
The LGMA is financed by way of a levy on local authorities which reduced from €13.9m in 2008 to €11.4m in 2011, a reduction of €2.5m (18%). The new library unit in the LGMA, to replace An Chomhairle Leabharlanna, will operate with five staff while An Chomhairle had an original staff complement of eighteen. The dissolution of An Chomhairle Leabharlanna could provide a once-off windfall to the State through the disposal of their Dublin city-centre headquarter buildings.
The NBA headquarters was sold in March 2012 for €2.84 million.
