The number of government departments in Northern Ireland should be cut, NI Secretary Peter Hain has said.
Mr Hain said he wants the assembly to cut the number, but if the NI parties have not reached agreement by the end of November he will make the changes.
It is thought the current 11 devolved departments could be reduced to about six or seven.
The public service union Nipsa said plans to cut government departments could damage services.
Nipsa General Secretary John Corey said: "The current departments are struggling to cope with the unprecedented challenges involved in implementing the review of public administration across health, education and local government.
"To seek to impose fundamental change in the role, function and number of departments at the same time will overload the reform process and could badly damage the delivery of public services."
Mr Hain said he believed the changes would "improve the effective governance of Northern Ireland".
He said if it was right to ask local government to slash the number of councils in the province from 26 to seven, then it was also right to focus on the future shape of central government and whether 11 departments were needed to deliver public services in Northern Ireland.
Functions transferred
"Following implementation of the review of public administration, a number of departments will simply be unsustainable in their current form," he said.
"The Department of the Environment, for example, will see many of its functions transferred to local authorities and, if it is recommended by the ongoing review of environmental governance, many of its remaining functions may transfer to a new environment agency."
He said the Department of Regional Development will see responsibility for water transferred to the new government-owned company and responsibility for local roads transferred to councils.
Mr Hain said that in health and the two education departments, "significant parts" of these will transfer to the new Health and Social Services Authority and the Education and Skills Authority.
"He could have dealt with the issue more effectively by including it within the review of public administration"
"For years, the Democratic Unionist Party has been a lone voice calling for the number of government departments in Northern Ireland to be reduced to a more realistic level," the East Belfast MP said.
However, Sinn Fein MLA Mitchel McLaughlin described Mr Hain's remarks as an "indication of the government's wish to satisfy the insatiable demands of the DUP".
"This morning's speech by Peter Hain was a self-serving attempt to justify bad decisions already taken by British direct rule ministers," he said.
Alliance leader David Ford said his party supported reducing the number of departments but Mr Hain's comments were badly timed.
"It is disappointing that Peter Hain has decided to thrust further instability upon the political system now, when he could have dealt with the issue more effectively by including it within the review of public administration," he said.
^ Back to top | BBC Sport Home | BBC Homepage | Contact us | Help | ©
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~01~RS~)