Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The mix is composed of six assistant principal officers, nine administrative officers, four higher executive officers, 11 executive officers, three staff officers and nine clerical officers. I accept the point about the professional grades. While it is not relevant to my Department in this instance, it was when the Central Statistics Office was decentralised to Cork in June 1991. Some considerable time was spent on this issue while I was the Minister for Finance due to the professional and senior people who were relocating and I am sure this will happen again. The difficult issues must be resolved in discussion and consultation with the relevant trade unions of the elements of the professional and technical streams that wish to remain in Dublin, which is primarily IMPACT in this situation.

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