Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I do not wish to repeat what I said in answer to Deputy Kenny. Criteria were taken into account and it was not a rushed decision for the last budget. Various tranches of decentralisation have happened over many years. A substantial amount of decentralisation took place when I was Minister for Finance some 12 years ago, affecting the Departments of Social Welfare and Justice, the Revenue Commissioners, CSO and other areas. It is an ongoing process and there was an examination of what we should do in future. About 20% of the staff in my Department have expressed a desire to be decentralised. The Deputy asked how this compares to other Departments. More clerical officers are interested in moving to new locations than there are jobs.

The figure for executive officers is about 85%, for higher executive officers is 74%, for assistant principal officers is 67% and for principal officers is 38%. As people get older they are less inclined to move. Overall, the total number of civil servant applications for the new Civil Service locations equates to about 83% of the number of Civil Service jobs available in those locations. There are 47 locations and in the case of 28, applications exceed 80% of the total number of posts available and in 18 of these locations, the total number of applications exceeds the number of posts available. Some of them are internal, some are external. Some people have already moved or want to move to existing locations. It will mean an orderly move over time. The Government stated last year that we would make substantial progress before 2007, and we will do that. We cannot simply build on the greenfield sites; we have to go through a planning process and see how that operates but all these things are moving effectively and my Department will comply with the regulations set out by the Department of Finance.

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