Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I state the Government's full commitment to the decentralisation programme and reiterate that its policy on the relocation programme is unchanged. To date, more than 10,600 people have applied to the central applications facility and, despite consistent negative commentary, no political spokesperson has said that any town or county should be dropped from the programme. I take this opportunity to express my disappointment at the consistent criticism of the programme. This criticism is unfair to the thousands of public servants who have signed up for decentralisation and who are now making arrangements to establish their homes and families in new locations.

I also reject the suggestion implicit in the question that the decentralisation programme was not properly planned. Contrary to suggestions from some commentators this was not an announcement hastily cobbled together for political purposes to fill a gap in the Government's budget. This programme was first proposed as far back as 1999. It had its origins in the very positive experience that Government, staff and customers of the public service had of previous decentralisation programmes. Following that announcement at the end of 1999 the Government received a wide range of views, ranging from trade unions and individuals to groups representing the towns seeking the relocation of staff to their areas. In all, representations were received on behalf of over 130 towns across the country seeking the decentralisation of either sections or whole Departments to their areas. This response showed the groundswell of support for the idea from all corners of the country.

As well as these submissions, the Department of Finance faced a constant stream of parliamentary questions and representations from local representatives anxious for news of commencement of the programme. One thing of which the Government could not be accused was of rushing to announce the programme. A long period of deliberation took place before it made its announcement on 3 December 2003.

A wide range of factors were taken into account and balanced against each other in selecting the locations for the new decentralised offices. These included the need to achieve a fit with the national spatial strategy, the existence of transport links and the locations of existing decentralised offices. The aim was to establish viable clusters of work units within a region, either in the form of self-contained locations or clusters of sites located geographically close to each other or to existing decentralised offices.

In regard to the implications of decentralisation on delivery of service, the terms of reference for the decentralisation implementation group explicitly included the examination of how decentralisation might enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the public service. To this end the group asked that all organisations participating in the programme should prepare detailed implementation plans including not just risk assessment but also mitigation strategies. A wide range of issues, including the potential loss of expertise and corporate knowledge, are addressed in these plans. The plans were prepared and submitted to the implementation group which subsequently reported that the overall quality of the plans was good. Since then those organisations listed as early movers have prepared further updated versions of their implementation plans.

The implementation group has met the Secretaries General of decentralising Departments and is satisfied that the implementation of the programme is being managed in a professional and carefully planned manner. The group is currently meeting the chief executives of a number of State agencies to discuss the planning framework in place, to assess progress to date and to hear about the challenges arising and steps proposed to address these challenges.

The Government is satisfied with progress to date on a number of fronts, including the level of applications to the central applications facility, property acquisition, assignments of staff etc., but I am conscious that a number of issues still have to be resolved.

As I have already said, more than 10,600 civil and public servants have made applications through the central applications facility to relocate. That facility continues to receive new applications every week. It is anticipated that interest will increase further as timetables firm up and buildings are completed. To date, 1,500 people have been assigned to posts destined for new locations and are being trained in their new roles in readiness to move. This 1,500 represents over 20% of the Civil Service part of the programme. Some 200 of these have already relocated and it is expected that up to 1,000 will have moved by the end of this year or early next year.

Discussions are ongoing with the unions in respect of the various human resource aspects of the programme. There are challenges in a programme of this size but I remain confident that these can be addressed with the active co-operation of all parties involved in the implementation effort.

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