Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It is a fair number of staff. My Department is not large, employing approximately 232 staff, and 42 represents a significant proportion of the overall number. I do not have the figures for other Departments but some people are opting to leave Dublin while others, who are in the regions, are opting for other regional locations. More than 8,500 expressions of interest were received but many of those were from people in the regions seeking to move to other regional locations. The number of applicants in my Department under the programme is high and the number of applicants has increased in most Departments with the passage of time.

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