Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I have said this so many times to the Deputy, but I will say it again. The last round of decentralisation was to approximately 20 locations. None of those has changed. The staff moved to those locations, are still there and have all worked very successfully there. It took longer than was envisaged in the early 1990s when we started the process, but they are in those locations, are working and are effective. I said to the Deputy last week, I said this time last year and I said in interviews last June and July — it is on the record — that we were never going to move 10,600 people in a short period and have it done by Christmas. That was going to be impossible, as I said last year and again recently.

Approximately half those people are already outside Dublin and trying to move to locations nearer their existing homes. The other half are mainly — although not all — young people who want to get out of Dublin. It is approximately 5,000 outside Dublin and 5,000 in Dublin. We already have good examples such as the Marine Institute, whose launch I will attend in one or two weeks' time. It moved to Galway.

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