Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

Does the Minister of State agree that the decentralisation fiasco puts the development aid programme at risk? He is massaging the figures. There are 26 staff members out of 123 at DCI willing to decentralise to Limerick, approximately 21%. They do not know where they are going because two years on no property has been identified or bought in Limerick. People are being asked to decide to move without knowing where in Limerick they will go.

Does the Minister agree that with only 26 out of 123 signalling their willingness to go to Limerick there is a serious risk of wrong decisions being made? The result will be a loss of institutional memory. How can the Minister guarantee that we will get value for money on the programmes to be funded after decentralisation with such a serious loss of institutional memory?

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