Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

——about the location of the new offices of the Office of the Minister for Children? I invite Members to guess where this new Government department will be located. When decentralisation programmes were successfully pursued by other Governments, including Governments in which the Labour Party successfully took part, there was a principle that new institutions being created should be decentralised. I refer to the decentralisation of the Environmental Protection Agency to County Wexford and the computerised driver licensing system to County Clare, for example. Where do Deputies think the prototype new Office of the Minister for Children will be decentralised to, according to an answer that was given by the Minister of State with responsibility for children the other day? Will the Minister comment on the decision to locate the office in Bishop's Square, Redmond's Hill, Dublin 2? Does he agree that this is a farce?

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