Dáil debates

Tuesday, 13 December 2005

2:30 pm

Photo of Brian CowenBrian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As I said, the central applications facility has received approximately 10,600 applications. The breakdown between city and country is approximately 50-50. The latest progress report from the decentralisation implementation group, which is charged with advancing this Government initiative, came to us at the end of June 2005. We hope that, by the end of next year or early 2007, up to 1,000 staff will be in situ in decentralised locations. There are already 900 sitting behind desks in preparation and training for the move they will make. It is hoped beyond that, despite the challenges, to move another 2,000 by the end of 2007, giving a total of up to 3,000. That is the most recent progress report of the decentralisation implementation group. There are issues regarding the general service. We have had a successful culture of decentralisation before in the public service and we can draw on that experience and proceed fairly well.

There are three other broad areas that must be addressed. Regarding information and communications technology, particularly in the Revenue, the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the Department of Agriculture and Food, there is the question of analysing current applications and working with management and trade unions on proposals to fill shortfalls. That issue is ongoing as we continue with the simpler aspect of the task, namely, transferring general service people to decentralised locations, as was done in smaller-scale initiatives in the past.

Engagement with the trade unions is taking place regarding professional and technical staff, such as engineers, quantity surveyors in the Office of Public Works and environmental experts whom the Deputy mentioned regarding development co-operation. That will be a more difficult situation than with the general service, but we must sit down and work through the issues with professional and technical staff to see how we might proceed.

A third issue concerns the State-sponsored bodies where there has been less of a culture of relocation hitherto. People from the line Departments, the agencies and the trade unions have met to see how we might be able to introduce initiatives to ameliorate that situation. In that general context, we hope that the voluntary initiative will have put up to 3,000 people in place by the end of 2007. We must work through the issues with various categories where specific questions arise because of the traditional culture and background of the organisation or the fact that it was not involved in previous initiatives, and decide how to proceed with them. That is the position, and the progress report from the decentralisation implementation group at the end of June is the latest full assessment.

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