Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Those civil servants who wish to transfer have made their applications on the central applications facility. Some difficulties have arisen about professional grades, as there were during the last decentralisation round. We will not duplicate the positions but we must negotiate a way through this. It was done before and will have to be done again.

It is not a charge to get civil servants out of Dublin and into caravans. When the sites are available, they will move. It will not be finished by Christmas, but some hundreds of civil servants will have moved by then to the 13 locations.

Difficulties have arisen with the State agencies which have no history of decentralisation and where small numbers of people are involved. I referred to the argument put forward by some outside the House that if some State workers opt to stay in Dublin, they should be automatically promoted. That cannot happen as they must be treated equally. That is the understood position with the Civil Service unions. Where there are difficulties, we will negotiate through them.

I see no difficulty with policy-making units being here, there or anywhere. Some of the largest multinational companies in the world operate in Ireland. With their bases in different parts of the world, they have policy and business meetings through televised conferences. I have addressed some of these meetings. Personnel in these companies can deal with policy in Latin America and the US. To say that because someone is in Nenagh or Sligo, the whole Civil Service system will stop functioning is a statement from the 1930s.

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