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 | | Saturday, 16 February, 2002, 10:22 GMT Minister calls for cuts to NI administration  Mr Robinson has called for a cut in the number of assembly members A review of public administration in Northern Ireland should be extended to look at reducing the size of the Stormont administration, according to the regional development minister, Peter Robinson. Mr Robinson said any decisions to rationalise the layers of government should examine the number of assembly members and government departments. "You couldn't argue, first of all, that there should be 108 assembly members for a community with about one million of an electorate," he said. "You couldn't argue that there should be 11 departments in Northern Ireland. We used to have five or six and that seems to have been a sensible breakdown."
However, the institutions set up by the Good Friday Agreement, including the 11 Stormont departments and the six cross-border bodies, will not be part of the review, which was announced by the executive last week. The fundamental review will consider the future of the province's 26 councils, five education boards and four health boards. The executive said it would examine the many layers of local government and administration to see if they could be made more efficient. The review will be launched formally in the spring. Government officials have indicated that while there is no pre-determined outcome, the review might recommend a reduction in the number of local councils. There may also be a rationalisation in the overlap between different bodies. The assembly is expected to debate the new review of public administration at the end of this month. | | See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Northern Ireland stories now:  Links to more Northern Ireland stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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