Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

It is an innovation to see a proposal on decentralisation being abandoned because the business case for the proposal did not stand up under examination. Does the Minister agree that one of the problems with the decentralisation proposals as published was that no business case was presented for any of the moves? Is that not, therefore, the reason we see zero progress with regard to the State agencies? The Government did not present or consider the business case. It is not surprising then that these agencies are moving at a snail's pace, as admitted by the Minister.

The Minister says "appropriate authorities" need to make suggestions about how the process can be moved forward. Is the Minister not the appropriate authority? It is up to him to make an offer on transferability of people working in State agencies so that some career possibilities are available for people who want to remain in Dublin. However, he has made no move whatsoever to break the logjam and that is the reason there is no progress on State agencies.

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