Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Four of the agencies under the aegis of my Department are due to decentralise as follows: FÁS is to move 383 posts to Birr, County Offaly; Enterprise Ireland is to move 292 posts to Shannon; the Health and Safety Authority is to move 110 posts to Thomastown, County Kilkenny, and the National Standards Authority of Ireland is to move 132 posts to Arklow, County Wicklow.

Under the Government's decentralisation programme, FÁS is due to transfer its head office including 383 staff to Birr, County Offaly with a target date of 2009. There is no sub-category for specialist posts. The FÁS plan is predicated on the maintenance of services while the decentralisation programme is being implemented. FÁS is confident that the process can be managed in such a manner that specialist services provided by the organisation will be unaffected.

The Health and Safety Authority is to move 110 posts to Thomastown, County Kilkenny. The authority has been advised by OPW that as the site procurement is in the final stages, the current time line for availability for occupancy is late 2008. Twenty-one new recruits, along with four serving staff who wish to move in advance of the Thomastown premises being available, will shortly move to interim accommodation in Kilkenny city.

It is assumed the specialist staff referred to hold inspector positions. It is not possible for the authority to predict what decisions individual staff members may take in respect of their career choices. Therefore, it is impossible to predict what specialist staff will be lost to the authority during the decentralisation programme.

All specialist posts based in the Dublin headquarters of the Health and Safety Authority are earmarked for decentralisation, but as part of the decentralisation plan, the need to maintain an office in Dublin to service the Dublin region would require 34 specialists.

Currently the authority has approximately 100 inspectors of which in excess of 60% are based in Dublin. Of these, seven have applied through CAF to relocate. In addition, a number of specialist posts have also been filled on promotion on the basis of the final location of the post being Thomastown. Nine new inspectors have been recruited on the basis that their eventual location will be Thomastown.

The figures outlined exclude REACH staff. All staff, both specialist and administrative which includes up to 44, sanctioned for REACH will be based in Thomastown.

I understand the authority has identified loss of specialist staff as a real risk and has proposals in its decentralisation plan to deal with that risk. The authority has a comprehensive programme of work approved by the board of the authority and presented to my Department in accordance with the provision of the Safety, Health and Welfare Act 2005. The authority is fully committed to delivering on its programme of work in 2006 and subsequent years while moving forward with its decentralisation implementation plan as published on the website and updated from time to time.

The NSAI projects April 2009 as the completion date under its current decentralisation plan, for the move of 132 posts to Arklow. NSAI has 74 posts of specialist skills planned for relocation under the decentralisation move to Arklow. Currently, eight holders of these specialist posts have expressed their willingness to transfer with their post to Arklow. The decentralisation plan developed by the authority addresses the delivery of quality service and recognises the requirement to manage this issue.

The Government has decided that the headquarters of Enterprise Ireland, including 292 posts, will relocate to Shannon as part of the decentralisation programme. Of these posts, some 107 are in the technical and professional grades, while 25 are senior managers working in general administrative grades with specialist skills and experience, giving a total of 132 specialist posts in all.

The most recent information from the CAF indicates that 19 Enterprise Ireland staff applied for decentralisation to Enterprise Ireland in Shannon. Of these, seven are in technical and professional grades, based in Dublin, and in posts that have been identified for relocation to Shannon; and four are in technical and professional grades and are based outside Dublin or in posts that have not been designated for relocation to Shannon.

The timing of the major move of Enterprise Ireland staff to Shannon town is dependent on having sufficient, suitably qualified and experienced people opting to transfer to Shannon, within the terms of the Government decision, to undertake the work of the areas scheduled for location in Shannon. It is too early at this stage to predict with certainty when a sufficient cadre of suitably qualified and experienced staff will be in place. Therefore, while a preferred site has been identified in Shannon, in consultation with the OPW, it is not possible to say when the move to Shannon will be completed.

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