DEPARTMENTAL CLOSURES:UP TO two new Government departments with an economic remit could be created through the closure of the departments of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and Arts, Sport and Tourism, the McCarthy report argues.
However, Opposition politicians have warned of the need for departmental recognition of “rural problems”.
The report says transferring their responsibilities to other existing departments “would allow for the creation of up to two other departments, whose creation could reflect emerging priorities for the Government”.
The report says the savings from moving the functions of Arts, Sports and Tourism “have not been quantified in this paper; savings would arise in corporate services and administrative non-pay expenditure”.
But its overall savings for Arts, Sports and Tourism is €104.8 million with a reduction of 170 of 1,433 staff and a €151 million cut in Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs with 196 jobs lost.
Fine Gael community and rural affairs spokesman Michael Ring said that “there has been a lot of wastage and duplication within the department. Different programmes have set up quangos within quangos to deal with their problems,” he said. “We should have had one-stop shops instead of different groups administering different schemes.”
But he said “this department at least recognised there are rural problems. The Government has to decide if it wants to recognise there is a rural Ireland with rural problems”. The solution was in “tidying up the department and making it more accountable and getting rid of the duplication”.
Labour Gaeltacht spokesman Brian O’Shea said the Irish language function should be “in the department of the Taoiseach and not just the Gaeltacht end of it”.
He said “the effort required to support and nurture the Irish language needs to be pushed at the highest level.”
