A cabinet meeting held yesterday arrived at two main conclusions: the necessity of merging government offices, and spacing out budget cuts over a longer period of time.
RÚV reports that, among other ideas, officials proposed merging the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Affairs, and to create a new domestic ministry within the confines of the Ministry of Justice. In the end, the number of ministries would decrease from 12 to nine.
Almost total agreement has been reached on the matter but, according to a source close to RÚV, Minister of Fishing and Agriculture Jón Bjarnason is not pleased with the changes. This would be because the most significant change proposed was the creation of a Ministry of Employment. This proposed ministry would oversee agriculture, industry and fishing.
At the same time, the Ministry for the Environment would become the Ministry for the Environment and Resources, making recommendations to the Ministry of Employment on how and when Icelandic natural resources should best be utilized for the purpose of employment.
Moreover, the meeting proposed spacing out budget cuts over a longer period of time, so as to reduce the social impact they would have.
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