Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thought after last weekend the Department might be decentralised to the midlands but this does not seem to be the case. With regard to the 32 members of staff who have applied for transfer to other Departments, what is the position with regard to those Departments being decentralised? I assume it may well be based on general, geographical, home or family circumstances and where staff may prefer to work. Will the 32 individuals in question be replaced when they are transferred or decentralised?

The Taoiseach's predecessor invited the OECD to do an analysis and report on the decentralisation programme in general. In very polite language the OECD report clearly indicated the programme is in a complete shambles. The Taoiseach can see, as I and others also can, the benefits of a planned and well managed decentralisation programme in a town in his constituency. It is perfectly obvious, however, that there is a complete blockage in the programme through which 10,000 public servants were to be decentralised to 53 locations inside three years.

One of the key tenets of the OECD report is that 90% of persons working in Departments or agencies could be affected by decentralisation, the central point being that there will be a complete fragmentation of the collective memory of the public service in the Departments in question. Does the Taoiseach share the view that if one could, in theory, implement the entire decentralisation programme in the morning, which will obviously not happen, the collective capacity and memory of the public service being dissipated over such a large area into such small fragmented pieces would not provide the capacity for public service reform and delivery, of which the Taoiseach has rightly spoken in the recent past? What is the story regarding the OECD report commissioned by the Taoiseach's predecessor which has more or less said the decentralisation programme envisaged by the Government has not worked to date and, given the figures it cites, is unlikely to work?

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