Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

A number of agencies have moved. While I have outlined the difficulties regarding the State agencies, several other agencies, such as the Marine Institute, moved in its entirety. Only a small number of its staff did not move. The Land Registry was in a notoriously difficult position because it had many difficulties in terms of work arrangements and delays. However, when it decentralised to the constituency of the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Martin Cullen, in Waterford, it proved to be a huge success. There have been a number of other examples, including the move to Cork of 800 staff from the Central Statistics Office. They have proved to be enormously successful, although admittedly there were many difficulties with the initial moving process. However, these have settled down and it has been working effectively as part of the system.

I have talked to union leaders about these issues when dealing with social partnership and so on. Many of the agency staff think differently from public servants about decentralisation and they do not see it as something they want to do. That is a fact of life. We must try to accommodate these people. In my Department, 33 staff have applied for relocation and 15 have already been decentralised. This is a total of 48 people out of just over 200 staff — a sizeable number — who want to move to rural areas under the current CAF round.

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