Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Does the Minister for Finance agree that it is both cynical and dishonest for Ministers who introduced this proposal to hide behind the implementation agency and pretend that all the difficulties being encountered in the movement of the various groups have nothing to do with them? Is it not the case that there is no system for people who work within State agencies to move voluntarily from their organisations to any other? Four years on from the introduction of this initiative Deputy Brian Cowen as Minister has not produced any proposals to deal with that. As a consequence there are bodies such as Bord Fáilte where nobody has indicated a willingness to go, the National Roads Authority, where one person was willing to go and the Irish Aviation Authority where two people indicated they were willing to go. There are many agencies such as FÁS, the National Standards Authority of Ireland, the HSA and the Valuation Office Ireland, where tiny numbers are indicating a willingness to move. There is an onus on the political masters who introduced this scheme to take responsibility and come up with proposals to deal with this issue.

It is cynical and dishonest to continue the pretence that some independent group has responsibility for this, letting Ministers run away from it. It has been an ill-conceived proposal and we need to have proper policy to implement a viable decentralisation programme rather than the type of carry-on we have seen.

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