Since my appointment as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, six public bodies have been merged or abolished. No new ones have been established.
The merger of Dublin Tourism with its parent body — Fáilte Ireland — is now complete, while Coaching Ireland has been subsumed into the Irish Sports Council.
Dundalk Port Company was merged with Dublin Port Company on 12 July 2011. Tralee and Fenit Harbour Authority transferred to the control of Kerry County Council with effect from 1 October 2011. Baltimore and Skibbereen Harbour and Kinsale Harbour transferred to the control of Cork County Council, while Arklow Harbour transferred to the control of Wicklow County Council, with effect from 1 January 2012. The Board of Harbour Commissioners ceased to exist in each case. The current intention is that the last remaining harbour under the auspices of my Department, Bantry Bay, will be transferred to a more appropriate governance framework over the course of the next year. My Department is also currently engaged in a review of ports policy which will,inter alia, consider the issue of port company restructuring.
The public service reform plan (http://reformplan.per.gov.ie/) sets out full details of all agencies, including those under the aegis of my Department, which are to be rationalised in 2012 and 2013 and also those which are subject to critical review to be completed by June of this year. It is not possible to quantify the potential savings from rationalisation until the detailed arrangements in respect of each implementation have been worked through with the agencies in question.
