Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Government will continue to work with the Civil Service unions to relocate a substantial number of public servants. Deputy Rabbitte is aware that all these arguments were used previously. I remember dealing with sections of various Departments that did not want to move ten years ago. However, many of the Departments that did not relocate ten years ago are sorry they did not. They did not envisage the difficulties of population and traffic growth in the city. A sizeable number of public servants want to move. It makes sense to move services, on a balanced basis, to regional locations from where they can be effectively delivered to the public on a nationwide basis, as has been proven.

I accept there are difficulties involved in doing that. If a person is working in Department A which is due to relocate and he or she wishes to remain in that Department and for that Department to remain in Dublin, we must be realistic and acknowledge that we cannot move 99 public or civil servants and leave one to remain in Dublin, and that that person can expect to stay and be promoted. That is an unrealistic argument.

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