Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I and the Independent Deputies want the Dáil to meet next week for a comprehensive discussion on these issues. The Tánaiste's Government is now a hobbling paragon of incompetence, exceeded only by its arrogance. This week it was forced to back off from bullying FÁS workers into involuntarily decentralising to the constituency of the Minister for Finance. Some time ago, when the Tánaiste could bluster no longer on the health crisis, she admitted it was a crisis. Last week, we heard a slight bleat from her about the situation in the "to be decentralised" State agencies, where 56 out of 2,500 workers only are prepared to decentralise and 158 out of 1,200 specialist and technical staff only are prepared to go. The Government has taken a valid idea, a necessary policy of balanced and equitable regional development, and turned it into a mockery and a shambles with a cynical and opportunistic approach. We are left with a mess this week.

Communities in the regions throughout the country have been abused and given the impression that 10,000 public sector workers would be arriving in a short time to boost their local economies, a valid aspiration on their behalf. It was a cheap and opportunistic stroke with no prior planning, preparation or consultation. Mindful of the media fascination last week with the Taoiseach's facial arrangements, I can only equate the mess of decentralisation with a botched make-up job. It was slapped on in a hurry, there was no foundation, with blobs of paint which everyone could see through.

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