Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Is the Minister of State confirming that only five of the 77 locations that were to be entirely moved by the end of 2006 will even have buildings available? There are only five locations, and only two, Tullamore and Sligo, will have any staff moved. Therefore the deadline set by the Minister as a critical test for Deputy Parlon's performance as Minister of State seems to have been totally abandoned.

We have yet to hear about the building costs for the newly purchased sites. The Minister of State referred to €75 million for the purchase of the sites and €900 million for the total cost of moving. I examined the figures on decentralisation. Is it not the case that less than 10% of staff in the vast majority of the organisations designated for an early move have indicated a willingness to move? How will staff be moved with the haste intended by the Minister of State, as demonstrated by the building work already under way, if 90% of staff and in some cases more than 90% of skilled essential staff in the organisations in question have indicated they wish to remain in Dublin?

Will the political ambition to be seen to deliver have a serious impact on the capacity of the organisations affected to deliver? This is an important issue which the Minister of State has never addressed. He has never told us what serious risk assessments have been done by the organisations on the impact of the move, particularly as so many people do not want to move and so many key skills will be lost as a result. The danger is that the next report of the Comptroller and Auditor General will state that while all the buildings have been constructed and sites acquired, the Departments were unable to move because no staff planning has been carried out.

The Minister of State indicated that the Office of Public Works is in the process of buying 75 acres of land to accommodate the early movers and their 3,000 staff. How many square feet of property will be vacated in Dublin as a result? I presume this is how the State will secure a payback on its investment of €900 million. How many sites will be vacated in Dublin and where are they? The Minister of State must provide this information given the revenue from vacated sites was held out as the quid pro quo for committing €900 million to the decentralisation programme.

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