Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

If there is a logic in not decentralising the Department of the Taoiseach, could the same logic apply to other areas? However, the opportunistic and hasty way in which the Government made the announcement, inappropriately in the course of a budget speech, did not allow for a proper examination of that. If I have heard the Taoiseach correctly some 44 members of his Department have applied to be decentralised. What percentage of the Department in terms of personnel does that constitute and how does it compare to other Departments? In what timescale does he expect those people in his Department to be redeployed?

Deputy McCreevy, before the Taoiseach gave him his bag of bullseyes and sent him to Brussels, had declared categorically that 2007 was to be deadline for the achievement of decentralisation. The Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, on the other hand——

See this speech in context