Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The central applications facility and the implementation teams in the Departments must deal with that. Deputy Allen is right in saying that previous experience has shown it is more difficult to get professional groups to move. He will recall — I believe it is his area — that we moved the Central Statistics Office to Mahon in Cork about 12 years ago. We had some difficulty in doing so. However, as he knows, the CSO recently celebrated its tenth birthday there, having successfully reached its first decade in Mahon. It took time to get the various professions to move. In the Departments, Secretaries General have been designated to speak to senior people individually about their requirements and views. About 19 of 55 have agreed to go, with 19 others considering it. That is not yet the full number, but it must be done by one-to-one management to see if the people are willing to move. Since the scheme is voluntary, where that is not the case, they will have to find an alternative, as we did with some of the cases a decade ago. It takes longer, but it is the only way.

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