Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Has the Taoiseach's Department, as a consequence of the programme generally, taken account of the expert evidence given to the Select Committee on Finance and the Public Service to the effect that this was not a decentralisation programme but is about the dispersal of civil servants, that it has nothing to do with decentralisation which involves devolution of real power? Is he now resiling from the notion abroad that the foot has been taken off the accelerator on this issue since the debacle of the local and European elections and that the original programme for his Department, and every other Department, is no longer feasible? The Minister responsible for driving it has said words to that effect. Is the Taoiseach resiling from that? Has any quantification been done in his Department of the implications of dispersing the eight other Departments to 53 locations around the country? Is the Taoiseach telling the House that he thinks he can conduct the governance of this country by teleconferencing or video conferencing? I know some of his colleagues on the Front Bench might not be all that happy about being in the same room as him but video conferencing appears to be taking it a step too far. Is the Taoiseach saying we can do business like that in future, merely because of progress made in information technology and so on?

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