John Dennehy (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy did not state that none of those in his party did so when they had the opportunity but he could well have done so. However, I do not want to upset any Members who may previously have served as Ministers and who are present today. It was good to see Deputy Hayes welcoming the approach taken by the Minister, Deputy Cullen.

We need more political honesty of that kind in respect of decentralisation. In my view, we can proceed to re-balance the overall development of the country or we can continue to take a negative attitude. If we do the latter, we will look back 20 years from now and ask why we did not take action. As stated previously, I compare such thinking with that relating to the pre-funding of pensions for people who retire in 20 years' time. There is an onus on us to ensure that the spatial planning relating to and the development of areas is based on where we want people to live and activities to be based in 20, 30 or 40 years' time. That is what the proper management of resources is about and there is no resource more important than people. Their needs must be considered.

According to some people there is a new way of running Government, namely, via the polls. Deputy Rabbitte seems to have become a great supporter of this idea. He is able to quote chapter and verse on each Department and inform us about the number of people who will not travel or who do not wish to travel to certain parts of the country. I accept that the Deputy has to take a certain line when making his contributions in order not to offend certain areas or towns. He appears to be successful in doing so. I do not believe that the Deputy should be so concerned about the matter at this stage. Some of the polls appeared the day after the Minister announced the programme, while others have been published in the meantime. All of them were taken before any meaningful discussions could take place, especially with the staff involved or their representative unions.

Deputy Rabbitte and any prophets of doom — I do not number him among them — might do well to consider what happened under previous efforts at decentralisation. The one with which I am most familiar, and I hope I will be forgiven for being parochial, is the transfer of the Central Statistics Office to the Mahon area of Cork South Central. I recall that comments were made at the time which are the same as those being uttered now. Some people took particular glee in describing how poverty ridden Mahon was and in commenting on its high unemployment level, the social status of the people who lived there, etc. A great deal of negative comment appeared at the time which made me quite angry because I had lobbied long and hard for decentralisation to the area.

Those on Cork City Council who had responsibility for planning at the time had done a bad job in the case of Mahon. We allowed 4,000 or 5,000 houses to be built without the provision of any facilities, not even a chemist shop or post office. Mahon was saved by the decision to locate the CSO at its heart. That move represented a vote of confidence in the locality and its people. Since the CSO was decentralised to Mahon, success has followed success. Three weeks ago an announcement was made about the Mahon Point development. This will be a major integrated development which will be responsible for the creation of 6,000 jobs in the next seven years. A total of 3,200 of these will be created within two years. This all came about on foot of the situating of the CSO offices in the area. Close to those offices, 360 of the highest quality houses in the country are being built. From day one of the development, these will all be serviced with broadband and every other facility one could want in one's home. These facilities will be provided free at the expense of the developer. What I have outlined is the result of transferring one Department or agency out of Dublin and I want to see it replicated throughout the country. I want us to be able to employ the people living in particular areas and also to transfer others there.

The Government and its predecessor have displayed flexibility and we need to be able to change as time passes. This was shown by the Bill relating to Bord Bia which was debated earlier. We need to be able to facilitate recruitment and cater for attendant considerations. We can either do that ourselves or leave it to recruitment agencies and others who are exploiting people at present. I was informed recently that up to one third of a candidate's first year salary could be paid in commission to a recruitment agency. I do not know if that is accurate but if it is, it is disgraceful. We should be responsible for recruitment and provide jobs for local people in every town and parish to which the organs of State can be decentralised. If we upset some of the people in Dublin by doing so, we should inform them that it is for their own good because, if we do not decentralise, gridlock in the city will become total in ten years' time.

I commend the Bill to the House. As someone who previously worked in the trade unions, I believe it suits everyone's needs.

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