Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

My Department is relatively small. Some 18%, nearly a fifth, of the Department want to go up to this year. Of 39, 29 are still in my Department. They have requested to be decentralised and ten of them have gone via other Departments or agencies. The overall figure this year is 1,000.

With regard to the planned structure there is now an agreement and these issues have been worked out by the OPW and the decentralisation committee. By 2009 the number will be 6,800. It is a three-year programme; in 2007 it will be 1,000, in 2008 it will be approximately 3,500 and by the end of 2009 the number will reach 6,800. There is confidence this can be done. The process will take in 29 locations, where Departments already have offices or offices are being built.

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