Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I am not sure what happened in the first round — I think 7,000 or 8,000 people moved at that time. In this round, 20,000 public servants will be moving, which is a good thing. It is good for the public service and it is good for individuals to return to their own areas. It is also good for this city. Obviously, there is a cost involved. We have spent €4.5 billion on schools and we are spending billions on other things. Over a few years, which is a relatively short period in the life of the public service, we have moved many services around the country. It is good that we are not seen to have a Dublin mindset.

As I said before, with modern technology there is no reason services should not be moved to locations outside Dublin. There is now a free telephone service whereby people in my constituency can ring the Department in Sligo with inquiries about their pensions. In fact, to be frank, the service is far more efficient than when the offices were located in my constituency. Technology has moved on. We used to have enormous difficulties. Now that the staff are in Sligo, they can be reached far more quickly and easily. Apart from this, many in my constituency think that people are far nicer when they are outside Dublin. They do not have to deal with technology as the phones are answered by humans.

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