In answering the Deputy’s question I am taking State Bodies to mean State Agencies and Offices under the aegis of this Department. No new State bodies have been established under the aegis of this Department since February 2011.
There is a very extensive programme of reform within the agencies and offices under my remit and, as part of those ambitious plans three new State bodies are being planned from mergers and rationalisations of existing offices, the details of which are as follows:-
Consumer Protection and Competition Authority, following the merger of the National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority.
In November 2012, the Government decided to proceed with the separation of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and to merge the airport with a restructured Shannon Development to form a new integrated entity in public ownership.
The proposed Workplace Relations Bill will establish a Workplace Relations Commission with a full range of functions formerly carried out by NERA, the Equality Tribunal, the LRC and the EAT, with some appeal cases going to the Labour Court.