Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Other Deputies have been able to listen to my response without interrupting. It is very irritating. I do not know why the Deputy keeps interrupting me.

A parallel agreement in respect of professional and technical grades similar to the general grades is being discussed. As I stated with regard to the State agency sector, promotions must take account of the reality of decentralisation. We must find a way by which that can find expression with each of the issues we are discussing. We have not yet achieved a resolution of these problems because we need the IR process to facilitate such a resolution. I am simply noting that those areas which have been identified by the decentralisation implementation group as being capable of being moved quickly are being moved. We hope that up to 20% of the general staff can be relocated by early 2008. In the meantime, we need to work the IR process to deal with some of the issues and problems that are being highlighted.

To deal with Deputy Ó Caoláin's point, there is a differentiation only to the extent that there is a tradition of interdepartmental transfer in the Civil Service which has not yet been replicated in the State agency sector but which will require to be replicated. The decentralisation implementation group is quite candid and upfront in this regard. We need a ground-breaking initiative and we hope that the experience derived from the current IR process at FÁS will encourage staff to understand that problems can be surmounted and issues need not be intractable if we can bring a certain creativity to the process, as happened when previous decentralisation programmes were initiated.

I recall the same line of argument being taken with regard to previous decentralisation programmes which were less ambitious than this programme. This process is very ambitious. It will require time and will not be done in the timescale that was originally suggested because that would have required full co-operation by everybody from the beginning, with none of the problems that now arise. The revised timescale has been set out by the implementation group, which is comprised of people with an expertise in this area, who have succeeded before and who are prepared to work with the union representatives to try to do so again.

It is not a "same size fits all" approach in every respect because of the differing approaches or background that attach to it. We will proceed as quickly as possible. I hope the IR process can help us overcome problems, as was the case with previous programmes.

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