Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The things mentioned by Deputy Rabbitte are happening in my Department. Progress is being made with the central applications facility and in the discussions with the staff associations. My Department and all other Departments and agencies are working their way through the system. It will be slower than we anticipated. That has to be the case because the programme is voluntary. We are working our way through the system. I would not say it is a failure in the Department of the Taoiseach, or that it is not working there. We have moved to a position where it is working. Some 20% of the staff of my Department will move under the decentralisation programme. That is a high number, on any base. That almost 50 people, from just over 200 people, are prepared to relocate demonstrates that it is working. I concede that it is slower than we hoped, but there are many reasons for that. Some of the reasons are good and some of them are not so good. We have to provide for retraining and give people opportunities in areas like technology. I do not think it affects the service in any way. When I deal with a range of Departments which are involved in the decentralisation programme, there are no great difficulties. It will be even less of a problem as technology improves and advances.

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