Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Under the Government's decentralisation programme, the development co-operation directorate of the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is Irish Aid's headquarters, will decentralise to Limerick. Good progress has been made and personnel have either been assigned to, or identified for, 105 posts or approximately 85% of the 124 posts scheduled to be decentralised.

An advance party has already decentralised to interim office premises in Limerick, with 57 officers currently in place, the majority since May 2007. A further 20 officers, who will decentralise to Limerick, have taken up duty in the Irish Aid offices in Dublin. It is expected that the remaining staff of Irish Aid, including these 20, will transfer to Limerick in June 2008, on completion and fit-out of the permanent accommodation.

Of the 105 posts mentioned, to which personnel have either been assigned or identified, 33 are filled by officers who were serving in the Department at the time the decentralisation programme was announced, many of whom had existing or previous experience of working in Irish Aid either at home or abroad. In addition, the transfer of staff to Irish Aid from other Departments began in May 2005, on a phased basis, with a view to maintaining business continuity and minimising risk to the programme during a period of change.

I am very pleased that, following intensive discussions with representatives of the development specialist grades, their union, IMPACT, and the Departments of Finance and Foreign Affairs, an agreement has recently been reached which I expect will result in a substantial number of experienced development specialists transferring to Limerick alongside their other departmental colleagues.

I would like to make the final point that a very significant portion of the Irish Aid programme is managed at programme country level. Our missions there are staffed by a combination of diplomatic officers, development specialists and locally hired technical and professional staff in a number of disciplines.

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