Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

On the contrary, no enforced moves are envisaged. The Government has always recognised that this aspect of the programme presents different challenges from that of the Civil Service. As the Deputy said, more than 1,000 employees of State agencies have expressed a preference on the central applications facility to relocate with either another public service or Civil Service organisation. It is not unreasonable for these applicants to expect their applications to have been advanced by this stage. The Labour Court recommendation concerning the dispute between FÁS and SIPTU provides a renewed opportunity for unions and management to address the relevant issues. I would have thought the policy of non-co-operation could now be dispensed with on the basis of the Labour Court's recommendation. In the interests of fairness to everybody, those who do not wish to relocate received assurances on foot of that recommendation. As regards those who wish to relocate — there are 1,000 of them, although it is not as simple as relocating them willy-nilly — there is a need to engage on how best to address the issues raised by the Deputy. The Labour Court suggested the best way to achieve that is to examine State agencies generally to see how an accommodation might be reached for those agencies and the people who wish to relocate.

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