Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Regarding the policy on promotions, an agreement has been reached in the Civil Service with the general service unions in regard to the inclusion of a decentralisation condition in a proportion of promotions. Discussions are ongoing with the professional and technical staff in the Civil Service on this issue. In the State agency sector promotions must take account of the reality of decentralisation. In the absence of agreement with staff interests on the issue, management and the boards have responsibility to use available opportunities to progress Government policy on decentralisation.

Regarding the specific options that will be made available to staff remaining in Dublin, it is these issues that we wish to discuss with the staff interests in State agencies. We do not have a tradition of inter-organisational mobility within the State agency group. Progress on this issue will require the engagement of all the unions involved to arrive at an appropriate set of arrangements. The decentralisation implementation group, DIG, stated that it is precisely this type of ground-breaking initiative that is needed to give impetus to the implementation of the programme at State agency level.

However, in the normal course of events, vacancies in Dublin-based posts will continue to arise over the full transition phase of the programme due to retirements, resignations, promotions etc. I have already referred to the initiation of arrangements in the Civil Service for staff who wish to remain in Dublin. The primary mechanism for placing civil servants who are in posts which are due to decentralise but who wish to remain in Dublin is by way of bilateral transfer. As Civil Service staff who have applied to decentralise continue to be transferred into decentralising organisations, the posts they vacate become available to those wishing to remain in Dublin. At present, in excess of 1,200 staff have been assigned to decentralising posts.

In addition, my Department has been in discussions with the Civil Service unions on further arrangements to facilitate the placement of Dublin-based staff. The objective of these arrangements is to provide to the Public Appointments Service details of staff who wish to remain in Dublin at each grade level so that a proportion of vacancies arising in Dublin-based posts may be filled by those staff. These arrangements have been recently initiated for general service grades.

In regard to the specifics of the dispute, the result of the Labour Court ruling was that FÁS did not abide by the consultation clause and that it must do so. The court did not deal with the substance of the relocation clause, as such, and there is a need for discussion on these matters with the State agencies union representatives. The DIG has suggested there is a need for a ground-breaking initiative in that area.

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